Warning for Verstappen, fine for McLaren

No penalty for Sainz and Perez

The first verdict is in: There will be no further punishment for the Sainz-Perez crash. The race stewards state that no driver is primarily to blame for the racing accident. Here is the complete verdict in full:

“Sainz and Perez touched and crashed just after Turn 2 on lap 50. This is a situation where a small contact had significant consequences. Race control has examined how the incident occurred, not what consequences it had.”

“Sainz overtook Perez after Turn 1 and was completely ahead at the apex of Turn 2. When Sainz failed to exit the corner properly, Perez passed Sainz on the inside. Sainz reported that he had noticed Perez on the inside. Perez was slightly behind and could see the relative position of the cars better. But as the two cars approached the right-hand wall at the exit of Turn 2, they were about 1m apart.”

“From that point on and throughout the incident, neither driver steered erratically and, in fact, both kept their steering very neutral.”

“The race stewards checked the drivers' driving line over the previous laps. Sainz was on or close to his normal racing line, which forms a slight angle away from the right-hand wall. From the exit to the point of contact he moved approximately one car width further away from the wall. Perez moved approximately half a car width further away from the same wall and was more parallel to the right-hand wall.”

“So it was obvious that, although Sainz was in front and had the right to take his line, he was easily closing in on a car that he had limited visibility of. At the same time, there was nothing unusual about Perez's line, but he could have done more to avoid the car that he had a better view of.”

“In summary, the race stewards consider this to be a racing accident in which neither driver is primarily at fault and are taking no further action.”

Colapinto: “The tires suddenly woke up”

In his second Formula 1 race, the Argentinian finished eighth in the points today. “A dream has come true,” said the 21-year-old happily. One reason for his strong final offensive was the tires, which suddenly started working better again and gave the youngster the grip he needed.

“The first half of the race was very difficult. We had tyre problems. In the first stint I managed well with the mediums, but it was very warm, which put a lot of strain on the tyres,” he emphasises.

However, Colapinto simply lacks the experience to judge whether he can push himself to the limit or whether he needs to take better care of his tires. You can find his full statements here!

Tsunoda is annoyed with Stroll

The Japanese driver did not see the checkered flag today because he came into contact with Lance Stroll on the very first lap. This damaged his underbody, but the race stewards did not intervene.

“It is very frustrating that this has happened two races in a row,” he said angrily. He had already had to abandon the race in Monza after a crash with Nico Hülkenberg.

He said of Stroll: “It came across as an unnecessary maneuver from him. He attacked with an approach as if there was nothing to lose. I'm not sure what he had to gain, but I didn't want to make it easy for him,” said Tsunoda.

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo also drove the entire race outside the points and finished 13th.

Hamilton: Never had such bad balance

The record champion finished ninth and would not have scored any points without the Sainz-Perez crash. “That was probably the worst balance I've ever had,” he reports.

“I had so much front and no rear,” he shrugs, explaining: “That's not the art of driving.” He had already complained about it on the radio during the race.

“I had to yank the steering to break the traction at the front and slide through every corner. It was the strangest way to drive,” he winked.

The poor result was not surprising either, because: “I knew that we would not be able to overtake today. It is one of those tracks…”

The overtaking maneuver to victory…

… you can also see it here again from the onboard of the two pilots in the video:

Should the VSC have come earlier?

Several drivers are asking themselves this question. It took quite a long time after the Sainz-Perez crash for the race to be “frozen”. George Russell thinks it's “pretty crazy” that the driver was allowed to drive through all the debris.

“You couldn't see anything. I was shocked that the safety car or the VSC didn't come out earlier,” said the Mercedes driver. And Nico Hülkenberg even lost two positions.

He says at ServusTV: “It was a good race, it looked promising.” […] And in the last two rounds, a lot of things went wrong. A few things happened that I don't want to go into in detail now.

What he probably means: He drove through the debris and lost two positions as a result – and thus dropped from P9 to P11 and thus out of the points.

Verstappen does not understand investigation

“I did everything correctly,” emphasises the world champion, explaining that there have been “many examples” in the past of drivers overtaking on the inlap – despite the VSC or safety car.

It is completely normal to drive “slowly” past other cars or to congratulate each other, for example. There has never been a problem with that. “That's why I'm a bit surprised,” said Verstappen.

It is also quite possible that the race stewards deliberately initiated the investigations this weekend to draw attention to the fact that this is actually forbidden.

In the past, it has often happened that some things were tolerated that were actually not allowed – until it eventually became too much for the race commissioners.