14/04/2025 09:20
The FIA has cancelled a grid penalty the stewards handed to
Williams driver Carlos Sainz for not correctly serving a penalty
during the Bahrain Grand Prix. Sainz was handed a 10-second time
penalty and two penalty points on his super-licence for causing a
collision with the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli at Turn 10 - which
caused severe damage to the right-hand sidepod of the FW47. The
Spanish racer then came into the pits to serve this penalty before
Williams opting to retire the car, ensuring that the sanction would
not be converted into a grid drop for a penalty not being served
for this weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. However, the stewards
initially issued a document stating that Sainz had not served the
penalty, and was being hit with a three-place demotion for Jeddah.
Video-evidence quickly disproved this, with the grid penalty
ultimately being cancelled, although the two penalty points for
colliding with Antonelli remain on Sainz's record, with three for
the 12-month period. Not so fortunate was Liam Lawson, who picked
up 15 seconds worth of time penalties for causing two collisions,
and three penalty points, taking him to five for the 12-month
period. The full, updated list is available to view here.
Elsewhere, Jack Doohan picked up a simple five-second time penalty
for exceeding track limits for Alpine, whilst Nico Hulkenberg's
Stake was disqualified for too much plank wear, the fourth DSQ of
the season in just four races.