Carlos Sainz has been handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Alexander Albon during qualifying in Montreal.
Albon had moved to get out of Sainz's way before the final chicane as the McLaren driver completed a hot lap and Albon prepared to set his own.
However, at Turn 2, Albon found himself getting blocked by Sainz after the Spaniard concluded his fast lap.
Sainz qualified in ninth, but will now be bumped down to 12th, which promotes Max Verstappen into the top ten.
Sainz's last lap in Q3 was destroyed by a mistake which meant he was out-qualified by teammate Lando Norris.
“I got too greedy in Q3, I was trying to get the Renaults," he said, "I knew I had an 11.5 in the car, which I did in Q2, and I wanted to get an 11.3, 11.4. I pushed for it and locked up. I didn’t even set a lap in Q3 so I’m disappointed beacuse of that.
"A congratulations to the team, today we were the fifth fastest. We haven't been the fifth fastest for a while, so I'm generally happy. But I am unhappy about my Q3 mistake."
Local time
Local time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
Replies (2)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
what a shame for him and mclaren
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Not sure the penalty was warranted. Albon got through comfortably. Impeding also tends to be more the team's fault than anything else. I just hate to see McLaren's great effort penalized over something like this