Carlos Sainz had a very difficult Saturday in Shanghai.
Running in P4 during the sprint, he had an intense with Fernando Alonso on lap 16.
After getting move the done into turn 8 as they went side-by-side through turn 7, Sainz saw his fellow Spaniard send a lunge into the next corner, forcing him off the track.
Sainz returned serve into turn 11 as an aggressive move paid off. But he lost the DRS in the process to Sergio Perez who had snuck through on both Alonso and the Ferrari driver at turn 9.
Charles Leclerc had a run because of that and they made contact at turn 15, with the Spaniard forcing his teammate off the track.
However, the Monegasque ultimately got him into turn 2 at the start of the next lap. Sainz had to settle for P5.
In qualifying, the problems continued.
On his first run in Q2, Sainz dipped his right hand side wheels in the gravel and ended up going across the track as he spun, hitting the barrier. Remarkably, Sainz managed to avoid any suspension damage.
Nonetheless, he did break his front wing and caused a red flag as he stopped on track for over a minute before getting going again.
Sainz’s race engineer Riccardo Adami asked him to switch the ignition off. He ultimately restarted the car with his MGU-K.
He got back to the garage and carried on in qualifying, ultimately placing P7.
But the matter was not over. Aston Martin appealed the results of qualifying as they wanted Sainz to be punished.
Article 39.6 of the Sporting Regulations states that “any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or the sprint shootout will not be permitted to take any further part in that session.”
After a lengthy meeting, Aston Martin lost their appeal. Full reasoning can be found below.
