The stewards determined that the Spaniard unnecessarily impeded the Finn at turn 7 during the final minutes of Q1. Williams did not warn its driver about the car approaching on a fast lap, Bottas also did not make the cut.
Carlos Sainz had a bittersweet Saturday at Madring. The Spanish Williams driver, who was competing at home in front of his crowd, saw his qualifying get complicated first on track and then in the stewards' room. Sainz had finished Q1 in seventeenth position, not enough to make the cut, and to make matters worse, the stewards decided to apply a grid penalty for impeding Valtteri Bottas during the session.
The incident occurred at turn 7 of the Madrid circuit, in the final minutes of Q1. According to the stewards' official document, Sainz blocked the path of Bottas's Cadillac, which was approaching on a fast lap. After listening to both drivers and analyzing the on board camera images and telemetry data, the stewards determined that the Spaniard committed an infringement.
The report was clear in pointing out the team's responsibility: "The team did not inform the driver of car 55 (Sainz) about the proximity of car 77 (Bottas) on a fast lap and the driver took no action to give way to the approaching car. The stewards determine that car 55 unnecessarily impeded car 77" the statement noted, applying the corresponding penalty for Sunday's race.
Sainz had anticipated that the session had not been clean: "It hasn't been a very clean session, two or three problems that probably cost us there at the end, five thousandths to get into Q2" declared the Spaniard before learning of the penalty.
The Williams driver analyzed the causes of his elimination: "A combination of lack of performance on the straights, after looking at that lap, a couple of tenths, then going out very early for the last run and also impeding Valtteri. I just found out that we impeded him without any warning from the pit wall" he explained sincerely.
The Spaniard acknowledged that his lap had not been bad, but that it was not enough to make the cut. "It hasn't been our cleanest session, even so I did a fairly good lap but unfortunately it wasn't enough to get into Q2" he lamented. The penalty adds more difficulty to a race that already looked complicated for Sainz, who will have to fight back from the rear positions in his home Grand Prix.
The incident with Bottas also left the Finn out of Q2, as he finished in twentieth position. Cadillac, Bottas's team, could consider the possibility of filing a complaint, although so far there has been no official confirmation in that regard. The penalty for Sainz is a hard blow for Williams, which was looking to score points in Madrid to reverse its complicated season.
The British team will have to rethink its strategy for Sunday's race. Sainz, who started with the hope of shining at home, will have to focus on recovering positions and taking advantage of any opportunity that arises. Madring, with its close walls and its challenging layout, could offer opportunities for drivers who take risks, and Sainz is aware that he will need a smart and aggressive race to compensate for the penalty.
Sunday's race promises strong emotions. Sainz will have to demonstrate his talent and his ability to recover on a circuit where every mistake is costly. The Spanish crowd, which so eagerly awaited seeing him shine, trusts that the Williams driver can deliver an epic comeback.
