Carlos Sainz has lost fourth place finish in the Miami Grand Prix after he was handed a time penalty for a collision with Oscar Piastri.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was given a 5-second time penalty and one penalty point on his license after making contact with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri during the Miami Grand Prix resulting to his drop from fourth to fifth place in the final race classification.
This came after the safety car stoppage in the middle of the race as Carlos Sainz trailed Lando Norris and seemed to be faster than the British driver. The Spaniard was so keen to pass the Australian and once made it around the outside of the McLaren into Turn 13, only to have Piastri push him off the track and maintaining the lead.
The stewards took note of the incident while Piastri avoided a possible penalty. Later, Sainz made an attempt to pass at the back straight into Turn 17 with a last-minute move that took Piastri by surprise as the Spaniard slightly lost control of his rear and missed the apex. The two clashed as a result, and Piastri was forced to pit as a result of damage to his front wing.
Following an investigation into the incident after the race, the stewards decided to hand Sainz a five-second time penalty and one point against his license. The Spaniard crossed the line in fourth place initially, but upon receiving the penalty, he dropped to fifth place, with Red Bull driver Sergio Perez moving up to fourth.
The statement from the stewards read: “We heard from the driver of Car 81 (Oscar Piastri), the driver of Car 55 (Carlos Sainz), team representatives and reviewed video evidence and determined that Car 55 was overtaking Car 81 at Turn 17 when he lost the rear slightly and collided with Car 81. The collision resulted in damage to the front wing of Car 81.
“It was clear to us that Car 55 was to blame for the collision. In the overtake attempt, Car 55 braked late, missed the apex and in the process lost the rear, with the resulting collision. Although Car 81 was trying to turn in to counter the overtaking attempt, Car 81 gave sufficient room to Car 55.
“In the circumstances, we find Car 55 to be predominantly to blame for the collision. In this case, we took into account, as mitigating factors, the fact that but for the slight loss of control of the rear by Car 55, the collision would likely not have happened and it would have been hard but good racing.
“The standard penalty for a collision is 10 seconds with 2 penalty points. In light of the mitigating circumstances, we therefore impose a 5 second time penalty with 1 penalty point.”
Ferrari anticipated the penalty and told Sainz to increase his pace over the final laps of the race to pull out a five-second gap over Sergio Perez behind him. However Sainz only finished 3.2 seconds ahead of the Red Bull, and therefore falls to fifth place behind his rival.
He narrowly avoided losing a further place to Lewis Hamilton, who is 0.1s behind the Ferrari in the revised classification.
Additional penalties added after the race include two time penalties against Haas’ Kevin Magnussen – 10 seconds for causing a collision with Logan Sargeant and 20 seconds for entering the pitlane during the Safety Car period and not changing tyres. Also a 10-second penalty has been handed to Lance Stroll for track limits infringement.
