The Monaco Grand Prix stewards have warned of severe penalties in Formula 1 qualifying if drivers repeat an “unacceptable” impeding offence by Carlos Sainz in final practice.
Sainz has received a reprimand and Ferrari has been fined €25,000 for impeding Lance Stroll in FP3.
Ferrari driver Sainz was preparing a lap while Stroll was finishing a push lap – Stroll got round Yuki Tsunoda, who was pitting, but encountered Sainz as he was making a gap between the exit of Rascasse and the final corner.
In a punchy report from the FIA stewards, Ferrari was criticised for giving Sainz “a series of grossly incorrect” messages over the radio about the gaps to the cars behind.
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Sainz was accused of almost coming to a “complete stop” on the racing line.
“It is unclear to the stewards why such misleading information was given to the driver, who was under the impression that there was no car immediately behind him,” the stewards said.
“Due to the poor rear visibility at that part of the circuit, the driver was relying entirely on the team’s messages.
“Notwithstanding the above, it was noted that the driver of Car 55 almost came to a stop on the circuit.
“This is unacceptable and hence the penalty of a reprimand is imposed.
“We note that similar behaviour by any driver during qualification may involve much more severe penalties.”
Sainz was involved in another near-miss with the other Aston Martin in FP3.
Sebastian Vettel had just started a flying lap and as he got to the top of the hill, where visibility gets worse before Massenet, he encountered Sainz going slowly on the left-hand side just before the corner entry.
Seb's scary moment 😱#MonacoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/HVPt5KSZd2
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Sainz had just exited the pits. The stewards determined during FP3 this did not merit an investigation but felt compelled to include it in the report of Sainz’s Stroll offence.
They said: “It is also noted that a similar situation occurred in relation to the incident involving Car 5 later in the session, where once again incorrect information was passed by the team to the driver, and again the driver of Car 55 was driving slower that can be considered reasonable in view of the location and circumstances.”
Zhou Guanyu received a lesser punishment for his own impeding offence in FP3. He has been given an official warning and Alfa Romeo fined €10,000 after he unnecessarily impeded Max Verstappen.
The stewards felt Alfa Romeo had advised Zhou of Nicholas Latifi approaching but failed to mention Verstappen, which meant Zhou “appropriately let Car 6 pass, but being unaware of the approach of Car 1 also approaching, unnecessarily impeded that car”.
They said Alfa Romeo admitted it was at fault and, “taking into consideration the lack of rearward visibility in various parts of this circuit”, opted to impose a lesser penalty.
The contrast in language used by the stewards’ report for this incident compared to Sainz’s is stark – and it even refers to the Sainz incident with Stroll.
“The stewards stress the importance of accurate and swift communication between the teams and their drivers, and note that drivers must exercise care in where they position their cars, and their respective speeds, during qualification,” they said.
“The stewards impose a lesser fine in this case, to that in Document 39 [Sainz], because in this case there was a lack of information, in the former case there was significant wrong information.”
