The Free Practice 1 session of Las Vegas GP was eventful to say the least. Despite running for just 8 minutes, it managed to stir up a fair share of controversy. During the 8th minute, Estaban Ocon’s Alpine managed to loosen up a drain cover. While Alpine managed to put together the car, they only had to make adjustments to the chassis.

Carlos Sainz on the other hand, was not so lucky. The same drain cover managed to damage his SF-23 enough forcing the Marenello team to replace his battery. Despite Ferrari’s best efforts, Sainz received a 10-place grid penalty for this replacement.

The FIA refused to budge despite the unprecedented nature of this accident. Of course, with such decisions, there are bound to be outcries from fans, pundits, and team bosses alike. Former Ferrari team principal, Peter Windsor, echoed the same sentiment in his recent post-qualifying rundown. Let’s take a deeper dive.

One of Sainz’s best Qualifyings

Obviously, the penalty would have deeply impacted Sainz. However, come Qualifying, he did not let any of this affect his performance. According to Peter Windsor, Sainz put together his best qualifying performance of the season so far. Yes, Charles Leclerc did manage to beat him to the pole, but according to Peter, Leclerc is on a whole other level with that car. Despite this, Sainz remarkably did manage to beat Max Verstappen‘s RB-19 by a significant margin. We all know how dominant that car has been this whole season and Sainz’s performance cannot go understated.

Peter did notice that Las Vegas’ layout did suit the Italian powerhouse. The circuit with long straights reminded him of Monza and Singapore which had similar characteristics. Remarkably, Ferrari has been at their strongest in exactly these layouts. In addition to this, the low track temperatures also allowed Ferrari to cool their tires and engine to operate at a much higher rate of efficiency.

This performance from Sainz is definitely worthy of a top-row start. As we know, Sainz was denied this opportunity. Commenting on this, Peter noted, “He’s only starting P12, and I think that’s a travesty of justice to be honest, because it has absolutely nothing to do with Ferrari that he has this penalty.” 

Also read: “Entire Car Is F*cked”: Max Verstappen Trashes Toto Wolff’s Hypocrisy as Carlos Sainz Finds Unlikely Ally

During the race, however, Sainz stitched up another godly performance. Despite a poor start, thanks to the turn 1 incident that relegated him almost to the back of the grid, he still managed to beat the Mercedes duo on track. This was not without its fair share of issues as Ferrari almost had a reliability scare.

Ferrari gives Sainz a fright

When he was charging down the field, still out of the points position, Ferrari’s radio message gave Tifosi quite the scare. Riccardo Adami, Sainz’s race engineer, asked Sainz to take it a little easy. Despite the low temperatures, the SF-23 still had some cooling problems. The engine was overheating and if Carlos didn’t manage his approach properly, there was quite the risk of DNFing.

Thanks to Sainz’s perseverance and a couple of lucky safety cars, Sainz managed to coast and lift all the while managing to pull off some breathtaking overtakes. He finished ahead of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to secure P6. This 16-point differential allowed the third-placed Ferrari to close the constructors championship gap to just 4 points.

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Going into Abu Dhabi for the season finale momentum certainly favors Ferrari to clinch second place. One can only wonder how much more this would have impacted if not for the penalty.