The start of Q1 was more bumpy than expected for Carlos Sainz , who hindered Antonio Giovinazzi at Turn 6 of the Hungaroring. The complaints of the Alfa Romeo driver reached the stewards, who called to testify to the Spanish at the end of the qualifying session. However, the McLaren leader was not finally sanctioned, so he will start from ninth place on the grid.

After examining the video recordings in detail, the commissioners estimated that Sainz had not been able to see the blue flags in time, which are the ones that force the pilots to yield. In addition, they recognized that the blue panels were also not activated correctly, which exempted Madrid from any responsibility.

"Operators displayed the blue flags at checkpoints 14 and 15, but no blue light was activated. Sainz was unable to see the first blue flag and then had no time to react to the second, given his position on the track." , argued the FIA ​​document, signed by Gerd Ennser , Loic Bacquelaine , Derek Warwick and Lajos Herczeg .

"Suffering with the rear end"

More forceful were the role of McLaren, who also did not notify his pilot by radio of the arrival of Giovinazzi. "The team is responsible for reporting the presence of another pilot approaching from behind. It will not be accepted as an excuse that the pilot did not receive any notice," the commissioners argued. "However, in this particular case, if there had been a radio warning, the pilot would not have had the opportunity to react either," the brief ended.

In any case, this sudden blackout was one of the few positive news for Sainz on Saturday at the Hungaroring. "I am suffering a lot with the rear axle. The pace of the race can help, but coming out ninth is the worst thing you can do with the soft tire and with so much degradation," explained the seventh place finisher with 13 points.

Somewhat more encouraging seemed the message from Andreas Seidl , team leader of Woking. "We will focus a lot on taking advantage of the opportunities that arise, whether caused by weather conditions or by strategy, because we know that overtaking here is difficult," said the German, referring to the possibility of rain and the choice of tires, always key in the winding magic track.

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