When his engineer informed Sainz of the penalty, the Spaniard was heard yelling over the radio and pleading with the stewards.
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Carlos Sainz was miffed that he had dropped from fourth to 12th place at the finish line of the Australian Grand Prix due to a penalty for colliding with Fernando Alonso. Sainz and Alonso engaged in a wheel-to-wheel battle into Turn 1 on the penultimate restart of a race that featured numerous Safety Cars and red flags, with the Ferrari driver sending his Aston Martin rival into a spin. Before the final restart and lap to the finish, when his engineer informed Sainz of the penalty, the Spaniard was heard yelling over the radio and pleading with the stewards to hold off until he had spoken with them in person.
“Oh, sorry. Right now, I cannot talk. I’m too angry, too disappointed, too… I just cannot say anything,” the Spaniard said when asked about the matter post race. “I prefer to go to the stewards, get the penalty away, because I don’t think I deserve it and it’s the most unfair penalty I’ve seen in my life. I will go first to the stewards. I needed to come first to the TV pen; if I don’t come [here] they put me in another penalty, so…”
Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix after battling with the Mercedes drivers, avoiding multiple Safety Cars, and avoiding three red flags to finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. At the initial race start, Verstappen was passed by both George Russell and Hamilton. The Safety Car then made two quick appearances as a result of Alex Albon’s severe crash and Charles Leclerc’s retirement following a collision with Lance Stroll.
“From my side, I just tried to avoid the contact, it’s quite clear on the rules what is allowed to do now on the outside, but clearly, it’s not followed. But that’s okay. We had good pace, we passed [Hamilton] anyway but it’s something for the next race to take into account,” said the Red Bull driver after the Grand Prix. “We had a very poor start and then [on] Lap 1 I was careful because I had a lot to lose, and they had a lot to win.”
The field returned to the pits after an additional red flag for Albon’s incident, with Hamilton leading Verstappen and Alonso and taking advantage of Russell and Carlos Sainz’s unfortunate decision to switch to fresh tyres just before the stoppage. Verstappen had a free choice of tyres for the restart, so Hamilton took the lead at first. However, the Red Bull driver quickly moved back into P1 and within DRS range, adding to Russell’s misery just as it seemed his engine had failed.
Verstappen overcame the early drama to take a comfortable lead as the race went on, while Hamilton maintained second place and began to close the distance to Alonso, who was joined by Sainz and Gasly, who were on the mend, in a battle for the podium spots. When Kevin Magnussen slammed into the wall coming out of Turn 2, lost his rear-right wheel, and scattered debris from his Haas over the racing line, another Safety Car and then another red flag were thrown late in the race.
