Sainz retains P3 for Las Vegas Grand Prix after risk of penalty
- Meghana Sree
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Carlos Sainz will retain his P3 start for the Las Vegas Grand Prix after being flagged by the stewards for allegedly rejoining the track unsafely in Q1 at Turn 5.
Carlos Sainz's electric qualifying session under the lights of Las Vegas was at risk of being dampened by a grid penalty, after the Williams driver went off the road in Q1 then allegedly proceeded to unsafely rejoin the track ahead of Lance Stroll.
Following a summons by the stewards that resulted in no further investigation, the Williams driver will now hang on to his P3 start for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Though Stroll was on a push lap at the time of the incident, both drivers made it to the next part of qualifying. Yet following the session, Sainz was pinged by the stewards for a breach of Article 33.3 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
After consideration, the final verdict from the stewards reads: "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 55 (Carlos Sainz), and team representatives of Cars 55 and 18 (Lance Stroll) and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, and in-car video evidence.
"The team representative of Car 18 stated that the rejoining of Car 55 did not cause
any issue to the driver of Car 18 and stated that his driver did not consider the
manoeuvre to be unsafe on the part of the driver of Car 55.
"In view of the above and the poor visibility due to the adverse weather conditions, plus
the presence of yellow flags, we determine to take no further action."
Sainz enjoyed a rapid qualifying session in the mixed conditions of the Nevada street circuit, even landing on provisional pole for a few seconds during the dying moments of Q3, but was soon pipped by both his former teammates Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, the McLaren driver taking pole.
The Spaniard will now aim for a second podium of the season with the advantage of a P3 start, his best qualifying effort of the season after P2 in Baku.
Sainz looked comfortable in the car throughout qualifying, overcoming his early season struggles, and after the session shared: "This track maybe suited our car in the dry, and in the wet during FP3, we didn’t look very promising.
"But we made a few changes to the car that I think helped in the wet, and that allowed me, from the first lap of Q1, to finish every lap as P1.
"From the first lap of Q1, every time I was finishing the lap, I was P1, P1, P1.
"On the extreme wet, I was really, really quick. On Inters, I knew the others, maybe, would catch up a bit, but, yeah, happy with P3."
