Yuki Tsunoda has been punished with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lewis Hamilton during qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix.
Lance Stroll, however, has escaped a sanction after his own incident with the seven-time F1 champion at Zandvoort
In a busy session for the stewards, Ferrari has been fined €5,000 (AU$8,500) for Carlos Sainz’s ‘potentially dangerous manoeuvre’ which saw him force Oscar Piastri off track.
Tsunoda’s incident with Hamilton came towards the end of Q2, with a dry line starting to emerge following a wet start to the session.
Mercedes driver Hamilton was on a fast lap but was forced to back out as he came across a slow Tsunoda through Turn 13.
The stewards felt this was a clear impeding breach, handing the AlphaTauri driver a three-place penalty which sees him drop from 14th to 17th
A stewards’ report read: “Towards the end of Q2, Tsunoda was on the dry racing line at the exit of Turn 13 preparing for his fast lap and had not fully come up to speed and therefore impeded Hamilton.
“Tsunoda explained that he had been passed by another car and decided to remain slow in order to regain his gap.
“In the opinion of the stewards, Tsunoda clearly had the ability to stay off the line and therefore this impeding was unnecessary.”
Their ruling with regard to the situation with Stroll was different given the circumstances.
In that instance, they noted that Aston Martin driver Stroll “was on a prep lap and Hamilton was on a fast lap both approaching Turn 13.
“The stewards observed that Stroll had stayed out of the way of several cars from Turn 10 through Turn 12.
“He then started accelerating for the next lap early enough that he should have not impeded Hamilton. His speed at the apex of Turn 13 was similar to fast cars at that point.
“However, at the exit of Turn 13, he had not gained enough momentum and affected Hamilton’s lap.
“In the opinion of the stewards, while Hamilton was impeded, Stroll’s behaviour did not rise to the level of ‘unnecessarily impeding’ as specified in the regulations.”
Ferrari’s lack of communication with one of its drivers has again proven its undoing.
McLaren driver Piastri was forced to take evasive action as Sainz emerged from the pits, with his swift reactions praised by the stewards as he ultimately prevented a collision between the duo, which would have been their second in successive events after their Turn 1 clash at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Their report for this latest incident read: “Sainz was exiting the pits and immediately moved to the racing line before turn 2.
“In doing so, Piastri, who was on track, had to take avoiding action and was partially forced off track and onto the grass.
“In the opinion of the stewards, this was a ‘potentially dangerous’ manoeuvre, and a crash was only avoided by the actions of Piastri.
“The stewards listened to the radio of (Valtteri) Bottas, who was the car that exited the pits immediately ahead of Sainz, and Bottas was given ample warning of Piastri approaching on the track.
“By comparison, Sainz was warned not to cross the white line at the exit of the pits, and was not warned about Piastri until he was already alongside.
“Sainz explained that he had briefly caught sight of Piastri as he was rounding turn 1 at the pit exit and gauged that Piastri was on a slow lap. From then on he did not see Piastri because of the relative angle of the cars.
“He also explained that he was trying to get to the drying line as quickly as possible.
“While the stewards understand this explanation, in their opinion, Sainz’s rapid move to the line, while unable to see a car that he knew was in the area, created a ‘potentially dangerous’ situation.
“The stewards also felt that the team contributed to this situation and therefore issue a team fine.”
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