Sainz hit with three-place grid drop penalty for impeding Hamilton in qualifying

Williams driver Carlos Sainz has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix for impeding Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in qualifying.

The former Ferrari driver completed his last push lap at the end of the middle qualifying session when Lewis Hamilton was about to start his own last hot lap. The Briton encountered Sainz into Turn 1, and as the Spaniard stayed on the racing line, Hamilton was forced to abort his lap.

Although the seven-time F1 champion did not need that second push lap as he made it through into Q3, the stewards noted that they would investigate the incident after the qualifying session.

While the stewards accepted that fact that Williams failed to warn Sainz of traffic, they handed the four-time F1 race winner the standard three-place grid penalty which means that he will start from 12th tomorrow.

"Car 55 [Sainz] was on an in lap after having completed a push lap when Car 44 [Hamilton] was starting its push lap, and Car 44 had to move off track to avoid Car 55 in Turn 1," the stewards wrote in their verdict.

"The driver of Car 55 stated that he did not have any warning from the team, of the approach of Car 44 on a push lap. He stated that he was caught completely by surprise and because of the approach speed of Car 44, and the angle of his car, he could not see Car 44 in his mirrors.

"However, notwithstanding the above, the team had ample warning that Car 44 was on an out lap whilst Car 55 was on its push lap. Also, more than 8 seconds elapsed from when it was obvious Car 44 was not going into the pits, and hence was going to start a push lap, and when Car 55 could have taken appropriate action if the driver had been warned by the team.

"It is noted that the standard penalty guideline for this offence during Qualifying, irrespective of whether it was the fault of the driver or the team, is a 3 grid position penalty, and therefore the Stewards find that the standard penalty should be applied."

Reflecting on his qualifying day in Suzuka, Sainz insisted that while he felt more comfortable in the car, he still needs a few things to fine-tune before he can extract everything from the FW47.

"Mixed feelings today. We’ve made some good progress this weekend and I felt a lot more comfortable with the car; there are still a few things to adjust here and there of course, but this track requires a lot of confidence and I do feel we’ve taken a step forward.

"On the other hand, I lost around a tenth on S3 on my last lap, so Q3 was reachable and I’m obviously not happy I missed it. However, I prefer to take the positives from today and focus on tomorrow’s race, where we’ll try to do everything to gain some positions and have a positive Sunday."