Fernando Alonso Hit with Massive 10 Second Penalty After Colliding With Carlos Sainz

Just when we thought we were done with all the enthralling actions from the Chinese GP Sprint Race, including Ferrari’s tangling, Fernando Alonso retiring, and damaging Sainz’s car, here came another bit of action, albeit this time taken by the Stewards against Fernando Alonso. The 2X champ has been given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz. 

Carlos Sainz was pursuing Fernando Alonso for half of the Chinese GP Sprint race and finally got a chance to overtake him on Lap 16. Alonso, who was struggling with tire wear, missed the apex by a little bit going into Turn 6, which gave Sainz a better run out of the corner, who then overtook Alonso. The 2X champ tried to get back at Sainz going into turn 9, and dive-bombed his fellow countrymen. Alonso wasn’t able to stop his car in time, collided with Sainz, pushed him off track, and let Sergio Perez through. 

After the race, both Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were called by the stewards, and their decision is now out. Fernando Alonso has been given a 10-second penalty and three penalty points by the FIA for causing a collision with Sainz in Turn 9. The Spaniard will add it to his total race time. However, Alonso retired from the race, so giving the time penalty doesn’t really make sense.

The FIA’s report read, “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 14 (Fernando Alonso), the driver of Car 55 (Carlos Sainz), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshaling system data, video, and in-car video evidence and determined that Car 14 caused a collision with Car 55 at Turn 9. The result of the collision was that Car 55 was damaged and that Car 14 had a puncture and retired before the end of the sprint session. As per the guidelines on driving standards, which was agreed with the teams, an infringement of this nature required that a baseline penalty of 10 seconds was to be added to the time of a car that caused a collision.”

Regardless, Fernando Alonso did not let the penalty burden him and outperformed his Aston Martin at the Chinese GP qualifying.

Fernando Alonso’s persistence pays off; he will start the Race P3

Fernando Alonso has done it again and outperformed the car. The Spaniard once said that he makes the car half a second faster, and looking at the Chinese GP qualifying results, one wouldn’t disagree with that. Fernando Alonso made a couple of mistakes on his final lap in Q3 and considered aborting the lap, but pushed through and put his Aston Martin in P3.

During the post-qualifying interviews, Fernando Alonso said, “I had a moment in Turn 1 and 2. I nearly lost the car but didn’t give up, kept pushing, and set a good lap time. Extremely happy and proud of the team, we are not giving up; we are not in the position we want yet, but we keep pushing.”

What do you think of Fernando Alonso’s penalty? Was it justified? Let us know in the comments below!