As if complaints about the track layout weren't enough, the first Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring circuit provoked an unseemly spat between the two home heroes. Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz were all smiles before the race, but the cordiality lasted only until lap 14, when Alonso was attacking Sainz for 17th place.
Alonso was angling to get a run on Sainz on the right-hand side on the approach to the Turn 5 chicane when Sainz drifted right to take the racing line. Given the proximity of the walls, Alonso had nowhere to go, so Sainz's rear-right wheel took the Aston Martin's front-wing endplate off.
Alonso immediately took to the radio to voice his displeasure – a classic tactic to flag up an incident to race control in case it had gone unnoticed.
"At the start, he crashed into two people," fulminated Alonso. "Now he squeezed me into the wall in the braking."
Sainz had indeed hit Yuki Tsunoda's Racing Bulls car in the concertina effect as the pack filtered into Turn 1 at the race start. But while this had been ‘noted' by the stewards, it was written off as a racing incident.
But the contact with Alonso was deemed worthy of a five-second penalty.
"It's the nature of that corner when you turn right and I think he complained on the radio so he managed to get me a penalty like always," said Sainz afterwards.
"I think it's the nature of that corner is always going to lead to this kind of crashes because there's only space for one, there's not even space for two – and you cannot keep looking in your mirror while you're turning and doing a right-left because you need to look forward, so at one point you need to focus on your own driving line.
"I don't think Fernando was alongside me or anything."
It was all smiles before the race as Alonso and Sainz met Spain's King Felipe
Photo by: Getty Images
The reasoning for the penalty was made clear in the stewards' determination issued by the FIA.
"Car 14 [Alonso] was closing in on Car 55 [Sainz] on the approach to Turn 5 and was in the process of pulling alongside when Car 55 moved towards the right edge of the track after the deceleration phase had commenced, causing both cars to slightly make contact," said the statement.
"The stewards determine that Car 55 moved under braking and should have left more space for Car 14 on the outside. The baseline penalty for moving under braking is a black/white flag. However, the stewards take into account that both cars made contact and therefore impose a time penalty accordingly."
Sainz eventually parked when the team determined that floor damage from the opening-lap contact was costing him too much time. Alonso finished 17th, two laps down.
"If they [the stewards] consider that [penalty] enough, it's good for me," said Alonso. "We didn't finish any of the two in the points, but I think that was unnecessary. There was plenty of room on the left.
"I was just on the wall on the right, 340km/h. I think it was not needed."
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Originally published by motorsport.com —
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