Three-place penalty for Spaniard for Grosjean and Massa shunts
Monday 12 June 2017 00:11, UK
Carlos Sainz has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Azerbaijan for "careless and potentially dangerous" driving on a dramatic first lap at the Canadian GP.
Sainz, who had qualified 13th, lost control of his Toro Rosso after colliding with Romain Grosjean's Haas coming out of Turn Two, with the contact spinning his car round and sending it careering into Felipe Massa's Williams and into the barriers.
Sainz apologised to Grosjean and Massa on social media but the Montreal stewards took a dim view of his role in the accident, describing his actions as "potentially dangerous".
A stewards' statement read: "Notwithstanding this, and our conclusion that the collision was not caused by a deliberate act on the part of the driver of Car 55 [Sainz], we find that his assumption (as he stated) that there was no car alongside him and therefore he could move to that track position, was careless and potentially dangerous.
"This was evidenced by the further collision of Car 8 [Grosjean] with Car 19 [Massa], a direct result of this incident, which caused the retirement of Car 19."
In addition to a costly three-place Baku grid drop, Sainz also had two penalty points added to his race licence, taking him on to seven for the last 12 months - the most of the current grid. Drivers receive a one-race ban if they accrue 12 points across a rolling one-year period.
Grosjean was the last driver to be banned from a race in 2012 after triggering a huge first-lap pile-up at the Belgian GP and the Frenchman said Sainz's move on Sunday reminded him of his own from that Spa race.
"It was the same manoeuvre as me turning on Lewis [Hamilton]," Grosjean, who finished 10th, was quoted as saying by F1's official website.
"If he sees me or not, I was there, I was well alongside him so it's the same type of thing.
"I'm not saying it's a race ban, I'm not saying he needs a big fine as I had, but I'm saying I'm very unhappy with the way he behaved and I think it was very dangerous."
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