For impeding Hamilton in the second part of qualifying, Carlos Sainz is penalized with a 3-place grid drop, moving him to 15th position, allowing Alonso, Lawson, and Tsunoda to each move up one position.<\/p>\n
The stewards judged that the Spaniard had hindered the Ferrari driver at the start of the first corner as the latter was launching into a fast lap.<\/p>\n
The Williams driver failed to move off the racing line after completing his final lap in Q2. Hamilton, who was starting a fast lap, caught up with him in the first corner and made a slight swerve to avoid him. The seven-time world champion immediately expressed his displeasure over the team radio but still managed to qualify for Q3, ultimately finishing in 8th position.<\/p>\n
In his defense, Carlos Sainz stated: \u00ab No one warned me that Lewis was coming at high speed. I think as a team, we were disrupted… I overtook so many cars during my fast lap, and they were all on in-laps. I even overtook Lewis during my fast lap, and the team probably thought he was coming into the pits as well. Then suddenly, he started a fast lap behind me just as I was entering turn 1 to cool down the car, and we missed this information. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Sainz also specified that Hamilton was in his blind spot and he couldn’t see him coming.<\/p>\n
In response, the commissioners deemed that the *Ferrari* engineers had enough time to warn their driver and applied the standard penalty. In their report, they state: \u00ab The team was amply warned that car no. 44 [Hamilton] was on an out lap while car no. 55 [Sainz] was completing his fast lap. There was an interval of more than eight seconds from the moment car no. 44 did not head into the pits to begin a fast lap and the moment car no. 55 could have reacted accordingly if the team had informed the driver. \u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00ab It is to be noted that the standard penalty for this infraction during qualifying, regardless of whether it is the fault of the driver or the team, is a three-place grid penalty, and therefore the stewards deem that the standard penalty should be applied \u00bb, they concluded.<\/p>\n
Despite this penalty, Sainz was relatively satisfied with his qualifying session, where he initially secured 12th place: “The session was very tight. Today, I feel that Q3 was possible. I felt good in the car and I have the impression of making progress in the right direction. I just didn’t manage to put all the elements together for a perfect lap and encountered quite a bit of traffic during my fastest lap. But at least I felt much better and Q3 was within our reach. It’s just a shame we didn’t make the cut. But with such a close field, when everything isn’t perfect, that’s how it goes,” he explained.<\/p>\n
Sainz also mentioned being disturbed by his off-track excursion during free practice 3, which forced him to regain his confidence before qualifying. \u00ab It destabilized me a bit because the way I lost control was strange. So, I lost a bit of confidence in myself. But we did a good reset and made progress during qualifying. \u00bb<\/p>\n
For tomorrow’s race, where showers are forecasted in the morning, the *Ferrari* driver is waiting to see if the track will be dry or wet at the start. His teammate Alex Albon will start from 9th position, just behind Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\nThe updated grid following Carlos Sainz’s penalty \ud83d\udc47#F1<\/a> #JapaneseGP<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/qqnLxN0Eav<\/a><\/p>\n