The FIA has overturned the penalty Carlos Sainz received during the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix for his collision with Liam Lawson at Turn 1 in Zandvoort.
Sainz received a 10-second penalty plus two penalty points after driving around the outside of the opening corner, with his front right tyre clashing with Lawson’s rear left at the exit.
Williams was incensed that stewards gave Sainz the blame considering Lawson drifted to the left, so it later submitted a right of review to revisit the incident with that happening on Friday.
Although Sainz’s penalty points have been removed, the outcome has made no impact on the Dutch GP classification as the WIlliams driver finished 13th plus 17s behind Racing Bulls’ Lawson in 12th.
“The Stewards agree with Williams’ characterisation of the collision as a racing incident,” read the FIA report.
“The Stewards are satisfied that the collision was caused by a momentary loss of control by Car 30 [Lawson]. However, in the Stewards’ assessment, no driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for that collision.
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Car 55 [Sainz] contributed to the incident by taking the risk to drive close to, and on the outside of, Car 30 when Car 55 had no right to room there and there was a real possibility that, if the collision had not occurred where it did, Car 55 would run out of track at the exit and/or a collision would have occurred at the exit for which the Driver of Car 55 would likely be predominantly if not wholly to blame.
“The time penalty imposed by the Decision was served by Car 55 during the race. The Stewards have no power to remedy that served time penalty by amending the Classifications but note that the gap between Car 55 to the car ahead in the Final Classification of the race (coincidently Car 30) was 17 seconds.
“The Decision having been rescinded, it follows that the 2 penalty points imposed on the Driver of Car 55 are to be removed.”
This may come as a surprise given stewards had access to the required footage at the time, but nonetheless Williams expressed its delight at the final outcome.
A team statement read: “We are grateful to the stewards for reviewing Carlos’ Zandvoort penalty and are pleased they have now decided he was not at fault and that this was a racing incident.
“While it is frustrating that our race was compromised by the original decision, mistakes are part of motor racing and we will continue to work constructively with the FIA to improve stewarding processes and review the racing rules for the future.”
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