The last lap dual for ninth place between Carlos Sainz Jnr and Daniil Kvyat resulted in the Spanish driver leaving the track between turns 1 and 2 and re-joining still ahead of the Russian driver.
The incident was investigated by the stewards who ruled that Kvyat, “changed direction three times on the main straight then under braking, touched [Sainz].”
However, the stewards did accept that the first two deviations from the racing line were “not defensive” and declared the matter, “a racing incident”.
The Toro Rosso driver was also cleared of gaining an advantage when he re-joined the track: “The stewards consider that Car 55 [Sainz] was in front at the time it entered the corner and accept the evidence of the driver that he slowed in re-joining the track at turn two and gave room at turn three for Car 26 [Kvyat], in order to avoid gaining a lasting advantage.
“The driver of Car 26 also admitted that he slowed at turn two and gave room for Car 55 to re-join the track.”
Alan Jones was the driver steward this weekend, and he is renown for his view that ‘all is fair in love and war’ out on track.
Sky TV punter and current WEC racing driver Anthony Davidson was of the opinion that Carlos Sainz would receive a penalty, which would see him drop out of the points. There was consensus from Hill, Brundle and Herbert too.
The prospect of punishing a Spanish driver at the Spanish GP appears to have been a bitter pill the stewards did not want to take.
So all in all, a pretty easy time in the headmaster’s office for the Red Bull boys.
What! The Sky pundits got it wrong at Barcelona?! Whatta surprise! ;-/
Looked like a racing incident. Thank god the stewards did the right thing.
Let’s hope it continues that racing incidents are seen as racing incidents.
I remember an Australian was disqualified from last year’s Australian GP. The incident was Kvyat’s fault. he basically drove Sainz off the track with an over-enthusiastic maneuvre. See nothing wrong with that.
Yes. I was concerned that Kvyat might be penalized here, but glad he had lifted for Sainz, and thankful Stewards made the right decision.
Must be a bit sad for those folks throwing away good money on their Sky subscriptions and then have to watch those commentators get confused and bark out the wrong calls…
Couldn’t agree more.Glad Jones was there, wish he would get the steward job on a permanent basis.
Seems fair to me.
I thought something else when I saw it, but within context it’s ok.
It’s a bit like an incident between team mates, they almost always go unpunished as the teams often deal with it internally. I’m sure if Horner and Tost went to the stewards and said they were not bothered by it, then I doubt anyone would argue that one of the drivers needs a punishment.
Racing incident for me. Kyvat tried to overtake, made a mess of it, hit Sainz who went off track to avoid a potential double DNF for RBR/TR, and held his position. Perfectly fine. Racing incident nothing more.