Fernando Alonso in China received a heavy penalty during the Sprint Race following contact with Carlos Sainz. A contact that Fernando paid for with a retirement. The commissioners had evaluated the episode and sentenced the Aston Martin Spaniard to a 10 second penalty and 3 points on his licence. An unfair punishment according to the'Aston Martin who decided to ask for the review of the case, calling Ferrari to the stand again. The parties will be heard this Friday, in the middle of the race weekend, in Miami.
Sainz – Alonso contact, Aston Martin asks for penalty review
Aston Martin is no stranger to this type of situation. Furthermore, in China itself, he had already requested a provision, which never arrived, from the commissioners regarding the restart of Carlos Sainz after the impact with the barriers in Q2 of qualifying, invoking article 39.6 of the sporting regulations. Even though it was an issue that had nothing to do with his team.
Regarding instead the contact between Alonso and Sainz, engaged in a battle for third position in the Sprint in China, Aston Martin will now have to provide new evidence to the commissioners so that they can consider changing their sentence. On May 3, the team managers of Aston Martin and Ferrari are called together to determine whether the evidence presented by the Silverstone company merits the attention of the commissioners.
Fernando Alonso expressed his doubts about the penalty, explaining the dynamics of the accident: "At turn 7 we were side by side, then at turn 8 I tried to go to the outside, but he opened the trajectory so as not to leave me any space, then at turn 9 I did the same thing he did at turn 8. I tried to go to the inside so as not to leave him space on the line, but at turn 8 I opened up so as not to touch us and at turn 9 he didn't open up. So we touched each other."
