He drew the corners. He starts behind everyone.
Carlos Sainz spent months consulting on the Madring, the new Madrid street circuit hosting a Grand Prix for the first time. On Sunday he gets to see all of it from 20th place.
Stewards handed the Williams driver a grid penalty on Saturday, a few hours after qualifying. He drops from 17th to last for the Spanish Grand Prix.
The reason is clear enough. Sainz held up Valtteri Bottas at Turn 7 in the closing minutes of Q1, with the Finn, now at Cadillac, on a flying lap. Car 55 did not let Car 77 through.
Stewards found a double failure. “The team did not inform the driver of Car 55 that Car 77 was approaching on a flying lap and the driver took no action to let the approaching car pass,” their statement said. The verdict: Car 55 “unnecessarily impeded” Car 77.
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Knowing every kerb counts for nothing from row ten
The four-time Grand Prix winner has been through a rough season at Williams. That 17th place in qualifying already told part of the story before the penalty landed on top of it.
Racing at home from the back of the grid makes the job a whole lot harder. On a street track, overtaking is still a rare luxury.
Three drivers wake up one place higher
Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Bottas each move up a spot. On a narrow circuit where the opening corners tend to settle things, that is not nothing.
At the front, nothing changes. Lando Norris starts on pole for McLaren. Kimi Antonelli lines up alongside the Briton on the front row for Mercedes. Max Verstappen goes third for Red Bull, ahead of the two Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
For punters, the penalty mainly shakes up the markets on finishing position and comeback drives. Sainz still has the pace. He now has to thread through traffic on a layout nobody has raced on, and probably gamble hard on strategy.
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