During the first part of the qualifications, Max Verstappen complained about being inconvenienced by Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. Indeed, the images show that the Red Bull couldn’t overtake the Ferrari for at least two turns, while the Red Bull was on a fast lap, which was not the case for Carlos Sainz.
The FIA did not penalize the Ferrari driver for his behavior on track, even though it was deemed dangerous and inappropriate, because other reasons allowed him to receive leniency from the stewards. The regulations indeed require not to be slower than a certain lap limit time.
« The race commissioners heard from the driver of car number 55 and the driver of car number 1, as well as their team representative and looked at the videos and evidence presented », details the FIA’s communiqué.
« The driver no. 55 was in a cooldown lap while driver no. 1 was in a fast lap and caught up with Carlos Sainz. He tried to overtake him, but was blocked in an unpredictable and erratic manner. »
If Carlos Sainz wanted to respect the rule of the time limit per lap, the FIA however judges that dangerous behavior during qualifications is not appropriate and is dangerous.
If no sanction is therefore applied for the moment, Carlos Sainz nevertheless receives a warning for having infringed the FIA’s international sports code.
« Carlos Sainz explained that he could not afford to be overtaken by another driver in this lap in order to stay under the minimum time to be respected for the FIA. While this is understandable, there can be, under no circumstances, behavior of racing against a driver in qualifying. »
