Villeneuve Slams Carlos Sainz Over “Stupid” Russian GP DNF

The Russian Grand Prix last weekend had a dramatic start to the race. F1 witnessed Carlos Sainz suffering an embarrassing crash after exiting turn 2 of the opening lap. Former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve sounded rather disappointed with the Spaniard. He apparently criticized Sainz for the crash by saying what he did was ‘stupid.’

Villeneuve opened up his views on Sainz’s crash at Sochi. “The Sainz accident at Sochi? I just don’t understand what he thought he was doing,” Villeneuve was quoted as saying by motorionline.com. “What he did was just plain stupid. At that point of the escape route, there is a real wall.”

“He passed without lifting his foot, ended up crashing into the barrier. Personally, I think this a very serious mistake.”

After the race had started, Sainz was on the outside by turn 2 and left the track after he lost his rear a bit. This meant he had to go around the bollards to rejoin the track. The FIA has clearly mentioned that any driver who fails to go around the bollards after leaving the track will be penalized.

But while joining the track, Sainz was a bit too opportunistic and resisted slowing down. Unsurprisingly, he shunted his left wheel on to the wall and ended up damaging the side of his car. The damage was enough to force him to retire from the race.

(The quotes are translated from Italian using Google Translate)

Lando Norris disappointed with the Carlos Sainz crash

Carlos Sainz after crashing into the wall bounced back onto the track right in front of Norris, forcing Norris to hit hard on the brakes. He ended up losing quite a lot of positions. Norris took to the team radio to express his disappointment with his teammate’s crash.

“What’s Carlos doing? Trying to be a hero in turn 1?” Norris questioned.

Sainz’s retirement meant it was all up to Lando Norris to bring home some points. But due to his early pit-stop, his tires started to lose rubber and there was nothing left with more than five laps left. Eventually, he pitted from P11 and finished the race outside points. Hence, Mclaren has become vulnerable on the constructors’ table as Racing Point scored decent points to close in on the British team.