F1 star handed grid penalty for next race after causing US Grand Prix smash

Carlos Sainz has been slapped with a grid penalty for the Mexico City Grand Prix as punishment for causing a collision with Kimi Antonelli in Austin. The Spaniard attempted an ambitious move up the inside but ended up slamming into the side of the Mercedes.

The impact sent Antonelli spinning off track, but he was able to keep the engine running and rejoin the race, albeit with some damage that was hampering his pace. Sainz did not get so lucky and became the first driver to retire from the United States Grand Prix with too much damage done to his Williams.

The incident was noted by race control and the stewards soon confirmed that they would investigate the incident after the end of the race. That gave Sainz the opportunity to defend himself in a hearing, while Antonelli and a Mercedes representative would also be given the opportunity to speak.

After hours of deliberation, the stewards eventually found Sainz was "prediminantly to blame" for the crash. As a result, he will serve a five-place grid penalty at next weekend's race in Mexico, while has has also had two penalty points added to his racing licence, taking him up to a total of four.

Explaining their decision, the stewards said: "Car 55 [Sainz] attempted an inside overtake on Car 12 [Antonelli] at turn 15 and a collision between the two cars occurred at the apex. The driver of Car 55 maintained that he had expected the driver of Car 12 to leave him space at the apex but Car 12 turned in early and Car 55 locked brakes when it became clear that a collision was unavoidable.

"He suggested that the Driver of Car 12 ought to have anticipated an overtake attempt by Car 55 and left space to avoid contact. However, at no point prior to the apex was the front axle of Car 55 alongside or ahead of the mirror of Car 12. Therefore, according to the Driving Standards Guidelines, Car 55 had not earned a right to be left space at the apex.

"The Stewards therefore determine that the Driver of Car 55 was predominatly to blame for the collision and a penalty is applied accordingly. As the driver to be penalized did not finish the race a grid penalty equalling a 10 seconds time penalty is imposed."

Speaking before the penalty was confirmed, Sainz had told reporters that he felt both drivers could have done better to avoid contact. He said: "I think he started closing the door earlier than I expected and I ultimately locked up and got a bit scared by him closing on me and yeah, we collided. I think the incident looks a lot more bad than what it actually is because in the end it's just a small lock-up with high consequences, but a pity because we're coming on a good weekend.

"With Kimi, he was a bit more aggressive, a bit more closing the door, and it was more difficult to get them moved down and then you go home with zero, so this sport is just a very fine balance between just playing it safe, bring home P8 or risking it a bit more to try and bring home the P7 or the P6 and today it didn't quite work.

"I think the incident looks a lot worse with Kimi than what it is. I think he starts turning in on me and when I see him turning in, that's when I lock-up because I realise he's not seen me or we're about to crash anyway because he's closing. I know it looks bad from the outside in terms of the lock-up and the contact, but honestly speaking, with these wide apexes that we have here, we both need to be aware of the racing, and I think in this case we both didn't do a good job."