The Chinese Grand Prix stewards handed Fernando Alonso a 10-second time penalty for contact with Carlos Sainz Jnr in the sprint race.
The sanction makes no difference to Alonso’s result in the race as he retired from it.
Alonso also received three penalty points for the clash, bringing his total to six – halfway to a potential race ban.
It is the second time Alonso has been given three penalty points for an incident in the last three rounds. He was penalised after the Australian Grand Prix for ‘potentially dangerous’ driving before the penultimate lap crash of George Russell.
The incident occured as Alonso and Sainz disputed third place on the 16th lap of 19 in the sprint race. It began when Sainz drew alongside the Aston Martin driver exiting turn six.
As they rounded the sweepers of turns seven and eight, the pair appeared to make contact, with Alonso’s right-front wheel touching the side of the Ferrari in turn seven before Sainz moved ahead of the Aston Martin into turn eight. Alonso dived to the inside of the Ferrari into the next left-hander, turn nine, to reclaim the place.
At this point they appeared to make slight contact again. Both ran wide on the exit, which allowed Sergio Perez to pass the pair of them.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
After Sainz overtook Alonso a second time into turn 11, Alonso was also passed by the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Alonso was then warned by race engineer Chris Cronin that he had a punctured right-front wheel and was instructed to pit at the end of the lap. He did so, but was retired from the sprint race soon after.
Alonso believes Sainz should have left him more room as he tried to pass into turn nine.
“It was a couple of corners parallel to each other and a wheel-to-wheel battle, and, in the end, someone has to give up,” he told Sky. “I gave up in turn eight, the racing line, to avoid the contact. He didn’t give up in turn nine and we didn’t avoid the contact.”
Sainz said he felt Alonso’s move had “cost us both the race” in terms of achieving a strong result.
“Behind Fernando, I think I did a really good move around the outside of turn seven,” said Sainz. “I think from then on, he decided to be a bit all-or-nothing into me into turn nine, which cost us both the race, because I picked up damage and a lot of dirt on my tyres from that optimistic move.”
After investigating the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…