The danger in PL1
The first free practice session of the Las Vegas Grand Prix saw as the protagonist, despite himself, Carlos Sainz: a few minutes after the green light went on, the Spaniard from Ferrari had to raise the white flag following a high speed impact against a manhole, raised after the passage of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine. Fortunately for him, the #55 was not injured, to the point of being able to get back on track for PL2 after the great intervention of the mechanics, who managed to repair the damage in time.
The intervention of the mechanics and the penalty
Sainz then closed in second position right behind his teammate Charles Leclerc, demonstrating the excellent pace of the ‘Red’ on the new city route. However, due to the battery replacement for the dangerous impact, the Commissioners have however penalized the Spaniard by ten positions on the grid starting for Sunday’s race, sparking the disappointment of the Ferrari driver and the team, who will have to pay a fine for faults that were not their own.
Sainz’s words
A concept underlined with great disappointment by the former McLaren at the end of the session: “Physically I’m fine, I felt a big blow to my back and neck in the accident that you all saw – he has declared – unfortunately it hit the frame, the Power Unit and above all the battery, but also the seat. The mechanics were heroic in getting the car back together for PL2 and allowed me to complete it. We were able to make up for lost time and now we can focus on tomorrow. You can clearly see that we are competitive on this layout very fast, and as a result I am very optimistic. Unfortunately, the team informed me of the ten-place penalty for something that the team and I were not at fault for, and this changed my mentality and my expectations for the weekend. You can imagine how much it is disappointed and incredulous about this situation, and therefore you will not see me particularly happy these days. There will be overtaking opportunities, but as I said I’m disappointed and I don’t want to talk much about the future, because what happened today is a clear example of how this sport can still improve in many aspects: the FIA, the teams and the rules that could clearly be applied as force majeure to not get me a penalty, but somehow the people they always find ways to make the situation worse for an individual and I believe that in this case it is up to me to pay the price.”
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