Russell, Sainz and Norris to receive penalty
McLaren drivers Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris have both received a grid-drop penalty following the qualifying session for today’s Turkish Grand Prix. The Spaniard and the Briton will now start 15th and 16th respectively.
Carlos Sainz was given a three-place drop for holding up Sergio Perez through Turns 2 and 3 in the one-hour session. The Spaniard was also given a penalty point which is his first in the 12-month period.
His team mate Lando Norris received a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race after failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags during qualifying.
The FIA statement read: „Car 4 approached turn 8 which was under double waved yellow flags for Car 6 (Nicolas Latifi). Telemetry shows that Car 4 slowed in the sector and resumed speed after the incident. Car 4 then asked his team if he should abort the lap, but was told to stay out because of the rapidly changing track conditions.
„Car 4 completed the lap, which turned out to be his fastest lap of Q1. While the stewards acknowledge that Car 4 was not attempting to set a quick lap time, due to the changing track conditions he nevertheless did so and thereby breached the referenced regulations.”
The Bristol-born was also slapped with three penalty points on his license, and he now has a total o 5 points in the 12-month period.
Williams driver George Russell was also handed a penalty for this weekend’s race at Istanbul. The British driver was forced to use new Mercedes power unit elements at Istanbul, exceeding the allocation that is permitted by the Sporting Regulations.
Williams installed a fresh internal combustion engine, turbo charger and motor generator unit – heat on the FW43 of Russell. All three elements were the fourth unit for the King’s Lynn-born with the Regulations allocating each driver with three units of these PU parts. As per regulations, Russell will be required to start today’s Turkish Grand Prix from the back of the starting grid.
