Carlos Sainz has blamed Fernando Alonso radio complaints for his time penalty at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.
The FIA stewards handed Sainz a five-second penalty for moving under braking and causing a collision with his fellow Spaniard at the start of the race.
Alonso came out of Turn 5 with damage to his front wing after making contact with the Williams, voicing his frustrations over the radio.
“Yeah, he squeezed me into the wall,” he told his team. “The start, he crashed into two people. Now, squeezed me to the wall on braking.”
The 45-year-old’s “crashed into two people” claim referred to Sainz’ earlier collision with Yuki Tsunoda in Turn 1, for which the stewards took no further action.
However, they didn’t feel the same about the contact made with Alonso.
A statement from the stewards read: “The stewards reviewed video, telemetry and in-car video evidence.
“Car 14 [Alonso] was closing in on Car 55 [Sainz] on the approach to Turn 5 and was in the process of pulling alongside when Car 55 moved towards the right edge of the track after the deceleration phase had commenced, causing both cars to slightly make contact.
“The stewards determine that Car 55 moved under braking and should have left more space for Car 14 on the outside.
“The baseline penalty for moving under braking is a black/white flag. However, the stewards take into account the fact that both cars made contact and therefore impose a time penalty accordingly.”
Fernando Alonso ‘managed to get me a penalty, like always,’ fumes Sainz
Sainz was less than pleased with the penalty, despite it ultimately not impacting his race as the Williams driver later retired from the Spanish GP with damage caused by the clash with Tsunoda.
“It’s the nature of that corner when you turn right. I think he complained on the radio, so he managed to get me a penalty, like always,” Sainz vented to media, including Motorsport Week, about Alonso after the race.
“I think the nature of that corner is always going to lead to these kind of crashes, because there’s only space for one. There’s not even space for two, and you cannot keep looking in your mirror while you’re doing a right-left, because you need to look forward. So at one point you need to focus on your own driving line.
“I don’t think Fernando was alongside me or anything.”
Alonso’s perspective of the incident was that Sainz had created an unnecessary collision by not leaving him room in Turn 5.
“He had a penalty, no? So if they consider that enough, it’s good for me,” he told media, including Motorsport Week.
“We didn’t finish, any of the two in the points, but yeah, I think that was unnecessary. It was plenty of room on the left. I was just on the wall on the right, 340 kph. I think it was not needed.”
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