Official: Carlos Sainz gets 3-place grid penalty for impending Pierre Gasly

Further bad news arrives for Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz, penalized by the stewards with a 3-place grid penalty following the dangerous impeding with Pierre Gasly during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, which also involved Yuki Tsunoda. It’s an error that the Spaniard paid dearly for, as he slips out of the top ten after a lackluster qualifying session that only yielded an anonymous eighth-place time.

3-place grid penalty for Carlos Sainz after impeding Pierre Gasly in qualifying

“I have to look at what happened with Gasly,” the Spaniard said at the end of the qualifying session. “I was in the middle of four cars. We were overtaking each other because we all wanted to cross the finish line as the checkered flag was coming out. We tried everything. It’s true that in these conditions, I also experienced impeding on 3-4 occasions, but I didn’t open the radio to vent. I think the drivers get a bit too heated in these situations.” – the Ferrari driver pointed out at the end of the qualifying session for the Canadian Grand Prix at the 4.361-kilometre Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal.

In this way, the Madrid native tries to defend himself, although he was unable to avoid the penalty. Even in real-time, the incident left little room for interpretation, with Gasly having to suddenly swerve to avoid hitting the SF23 at 300 km/h.

The Frenchman expressed his anger over the radio, calling for a thorough investigation. This investigation ultimately led to the sanction for the Ferrari driver. Therefore, Carlos Sainz will start tomorrow in eleventh position, even behind his teammate who was eliminated in Q2.

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To be fair, Carlos Sainz’s impeding was also caused by Tsunoda’s position on the track, which didn’t allow the Spaniard to do otherwise. The Japanese driver, along with Stroll and the two Williams drivers, also ended up under investigation.