New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) The stewards of the Dutch Grand Prix have overturned their earlier decision to penalise Williams driver Carlos Sainz, rescinding two penalty points on his superlicence after the team successfully argued new evidence proved the Zandvoort incident was a racing collision.
The Spaniard had been handed a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points for causing a collision with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson at Turn 1 during a safety car restart on August 31.
At the time, the stewards deemed Sainz at fault for attempting to overtake around the outside. Calling the decision “a complete joke,” Sainz voiced his frustration immediately after the race.
Following a virtual hearing on Friday, however, the stewards admitted a “significant and relevant new element” had emerged, which was not available to Williams at the time of the original decision.
The officials explained: “The Stewards are satisfied that the collision was caused by a momentary loss of control by Car 30 (Lawson). However, in the Stewards’ assessment, no driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for that collision.”
They further clarified that while Sainz’s manoeuvre was risky, it was not the trigger for the contact: “Sainz had contributed to the incident with a risky move that ultimately could have seen him run out of track, or collide, had the coming together not happened when it did.”
Williams presented three new pieces of evidence — 360-degree camera footage from Sainz’s car, Lawson’s rear-facing camera feed, and Sainz’s own account of the incident, which could only be heard after the penalty was imposed. Crucially, the rear camera on Lawson’s car showed that “the momentary loss of control by the New Zealander resulted in Car 30 colliding with Car 55, not the other way around.”
Although Sainz had already served his 10-second penalty during the race, and the classification could not be altered, the stewards acknowledged that “the gap at the end between the Spaniard and the car in front of him was 17 seconds.”
Concluding their review, the officials declared: “The decision having been rescinded, it follows that the two penalty points imposed on the driver of Car 55 (Sainz) are to be removed.”
