Carlos Sainz has been handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Pierre Gasly in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, with the Frenchman branding it “completely unacceptable.”
Gasly was on a flying lap approaching the final chicane in wet conditions when Sainz — going slowly before starting his own attempt — was overtaken by Yuki Tsunoda. That left the Ferrari driver in the middle of the track and Gasly had to take evasive action before cutting the chicane, dropping out in Q1 as a result.
“Just think it’s completely unacceptable to be driving the way Carlos did… it’s as simple as that,” Gasly said. “Coming at 300kph, he’s sitting 30kph in the last chicane just focusing on his own lap but you’re not alone on the race track.
“First of all, I could not even close the lap — that would have put us in the top six easily — and second of all it was extremely dangerous and unnecessary, so just absolutely gutted.
“Definitely (should be a penalty) but it’s not even what I care about as the damage has been done. I’m sitting here in P17 when we have the pace to be in the top 10, 8 or even 6 in these conditions, so whatever they decide… OK, it’s gonna damage him but it’s not going to give us back the qualifying we should have had.
“Gutted. I was in the opposite situation the other day but the guys finished P1 and P2 and it didn’t impact their Sunday, now I’m sitting here in P17, ruined my qualifying, and impacts my race a lot, so it’s just unacceptable.”
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The stewards agreed that Sainz needed to be penalized, saying they felt the Spaniard had triggered the situation prior to Tsunoda’s overtaking move.
“The driver of Car 55 (Sainz) stated that he was surprised that the driver of Car 22 (Tsunoda) overtook him into Turn 13 and as a result he accelerated late to start his fast lap,” the decision read. “The driver of Car 10 (Gasly) stated that the driver of Car 55 could have and should have ‘gone earlier.’
“Telemetry showed a significant speed differential between Cars 55 and 10 … Although the overtaking move by Car 22 took the driver of Car 55 by surprise, it is our determination that the driver of Car 55 was predominantly to blame and unnecessarily impeded Car 10.”
Demoting Sainz three places drops him to 11th place on the grid for Sunday’s race, promoting Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc one position each.