Carlos Sainz penalty statement issued after breaking same rule as Oliver Bearman
The Monaco Grand Prix stewards have explained why Carlos Sainz was not punished despite breaking the same rule as Oliver Bearman. The Brit's weekend has already been ruined by a whopping 10-place grid penalty, handed to him after he was found guilty of overtaking under red flag conditions.
Such a move is seen as being highly dangerous and Bearman was duly punished for doing it in practice on Friday. And it seemed a similar punishment might have been heading Sainz's way after the Williams driver was reported for doing the same thing.
But after investigating what happened, the stewards have decided against punishing the Spaniard. That is despite them concluding that he did indeed overtake Franco Colapinto under red flag conditions during practice.
However, explaining their decision, the stewards pointed out how the circumstances were very different. While they felt Bearman should have reacted sooner to slow down, they concluded that Sainz did not have the time to avoid overtaking the Alpine of Colapinto.
The officials said: "Car 55 [Sainz] overtook Car 43 [Colapinto] at turn two. As Car 55 was going towards turn two, the session was red flagged. Car 55 was very close to Car 43 when that happened (42 metres).
"Car 55 was travelling at a significant speed, in excess of 250kph. Car 43, on the other hand, was on a slow lap on the left hand side of the track. As soon as the red flag was shown, Car 55 took immediate steps to slow down in a safe manner as required under Article 2.5.4.1 b) of Appendix H to the International Sporting Code.
"There was a significant speed delta between the two cars and the overtake was an inevitable consequence of that speed delta and the distance between the cars. In the circumstances, we took no further action."
In Bearman's case, however, the stewards found that there was "no mitigating factor" as the Haas driver had elected not to slow down straight away as soon as he saw the red flashing light, claiming that he had felt it would have been more dangerous to do so in the circumstances.
But the stewards did not agree and said: "The regulations require the drivers to 'immediately' reduce speed and proceed slowly back to their respective pits (Article 2.5.4.1 b)). The same regulations caution drivers of the fact that in a red flag situation, 'overtaking is forbidden' and that drivers should 'remember that race and service vehicles may be on the track'.
"We disagreed with his decision to not take steps to slow down sufficiently to avoid overtaking another car and instead proceeding slowly back to the pits, as required. The whole purpose of requiring drivers to slow down immediately is for safety – they will not know what is in front of them or the reason for the red flag being shown. This is particularly so in a track like Monaco."
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