Carlos Sainz escapes double penalty but warned with Sebastian Vettel and Nikita Mazepin over practice starts

Sainz, Vettel, Britain — Photo: © LAT Images

British Grand Prix

Sainz escapes double penalty but warned with Vettel and Mazepin over practice starts

Sainz will start the British Grand Prix from 10th

Ewan Gale

Saturday 17 July 2021 22:16

Carlos Sainz has escaped punishment for two separate infringements across Saturday at Silverstone and will start the British Grand Prix from 10th.

The Ferrari driver was involved in the incident that cost George Russell three places on the grid, with the Williams sending Sainz into a spin.

It was from this incident that the first of Sainz's alleged indiscretions was born from, with the Spaniard summoned to the stewards' for an unsafe rejoin to the track.

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A stewards' report read: "After being contacted by Car 63 [Russell], Car 55 [Sainz] left the track at turn 6 and crossed the asphalt runoff area onto the grass.

"From there, Car 55 crossed the grass at speed and eventually regained the track in turn 7 as a group of cars went through the turn.

"Car 10 took evasive action and narrowly avoided colliding with Car 55 as it came back onto the track.

"The driver of Car 55 described the actions he took to reduce the speed of the car in order to safely re-join and mitigate what was a potentially dangerous situation.

"The stewards examined the video and the telemetry data and found no conclusive evidence that the driver of Car 55 did not take sufficient action to avoid the situation."

Sainz, Mazepin and Vettel cleared of incorrect procedures in FP2

Sainz was also under investigation for not following the correct procedure for conducting practice starts at the end of second practice, as described by the race director's notes.

Whilst escaping punishment, Sainz was warned along with Sebastian Vettel and Nikita Mazepin for not following the mandated procedure.

The stewards' report for all three read: "The intent of the notes was discussed with the drivers and teams representative in the context of the Sprint Qualifying format.

"The stewards assess a warning, but note that future such infringements will likely result in a more severe penalty."