The Monaco Grand Prix stewards have fined Scuderia Ferrari €25,000 (£21,240) and given Spanish driver Carlos Sainz a reprimand due to an “unacceptable” impeding incident in the final free practice session for the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver impeded the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll at the final corner of Anthony Noghes around 21 minutes into the final hour of practice on the streets of Monte Carlo. The Aston Martin Canadian driver was on a fast lap when he passed Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri exiting the Rascasse corner, but was then forced to back off in order not to hit the F1-75 car of Carlos Sainz into the final corner, who was preparing to launch on a push lap of his own.
After evaluating the incident, the Monaco stewards handed Ferrari an unusually severe fine of €25,000 and gave Carlos Sainz a reprimand for the moment. The panel of stewards explained that Carlos had been given “a series of grossly incorrect messages, by radio, about the gaps to the cars behind” by his Maranello team just moments before the near miss:
“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 continued. “Due to the poor rear visibility at that part of the circuit, the driver was relying entirely on the team’s messages.”
Despite having not been given sufficient data from his race engineer, Carlos Sainz also received a reprimanded for driving too slowly before he was caught by Lance Stroll: “Notwithstanding the above, it was noted that the driver of car 55 [Sainz] almost came to a stop on the circuit,” said the stewards. “This is unacceptable and hence the penalty of a reprimand is imposed.”
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Carlos Sainz was also involved in another incident with the other Aston Martin car of Sebastian Vettel, as the former Ferrari driver was heading to the Casino Square, where Carlos was considered to be driving “slower that can be considered reasonable in view of the location and circumstances” by the stewards and leaving Sebastian Vettel angry over team radio. This second incident was not officially investigated by the stewards.
Ahead of the upcoming qualifying session that “similar behaviour by any driver during qualification may involve much more severe penalties”. Sainz’s reprimand is his third driving related reprimand of the 2022 season, leaving him two away from an automatic 10-place grid penalty.
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