After the collision with Oscar Piastri in turn one, the race was basically over for Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard suffered a puncture, braked too hard and the entire Formula 1 field passed him. Luckily for him, the red flag came out shortly afterwards. At the restart, Sainz was allowed to drive away from P3 again after a free tire change. Why, explains Motorsport Magazine.com here: That’s why Sainz was given third place: 10 answers to the Monaco GP
One person who is not at all happy about Sainz’s luck is Lando Norris – the Spaniard’s friend and former team-mate. Norris finished the Monaco GP in fourth place, behind Sainz. Without the Ferrari in front of him, the Brit would have been guaranteed another podium in the glamorous principality.
“Carlos was very lucky that the red flag came out because he was out or at least last at the time,” says Norris. “It was obviously annoying that he got P3 back for the restart because it meant I dropped back to fourth place. In situations like that with a red flag, you sometimes win and sometimes you lose. Sometimes it helps you, sometimes it hurts you a little. This time we were left behind and Carlos was lucky.”
After the wild crash at the start of Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen, the race was out of steam. Without a mistake or a retirement from Sainz, the podium was out of reach for Norris. “I couldn’t do anything on the track, there were no pit stops, nothing,” said the McLaren driver angrily. “Carlos could just drive slowly until the end.”
Norris angry: Sainz’s mistake was reversed
“It’s frustrating, but those are the rules,” says Norris resignedly. However, he is annoyed that Sainz himself was to blame for his (only brief) excursion to the back of the field. “Carlos made the mistake himself,” recalls Norris. “He hit Oscar and suffered the puncture. If you look at it bluntly, it’s frustrating and unfair. Just because a certain number of cars hadn’t crossed the line before the red flag, his mistake is reversed and he gets a free pit stop.”
As Norris has already pointed out, it is always a matter of luck who gets an advantage from a red flag. “I’m sure there have been moments in the past where I might have benefited from a situation like that and the team was able to fix my car a little bit or something like that,” says Norris. But this insight does not change his frustration about Sainz’s stroke of luck in Monaco. “It’s just unfair,” concludes the Briton.
Stella sees triple happiness for Sainz in Monaco
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella is also struggling with Sainz’s luck at the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo. According to the Italian, he had luck three times over the Monaco weekend. “The decisive factor that saved Carlos in the race was that Zhou didn’t have a sector time when the race was stopped. He was lucky,” says Stella.
Unlike Norris, however, the McLaren team boss does not speak of unfairness in this case. “As far as the way the restart order was determined, I think the FIA did the best it could,” said Stella. “That was in line with the rules and the precedents, where the safety car line was also used when no sector time was available.”
But Sainz’s second stroke of luck seems to have made the team boss a little suspicious. “The stewards were also lenient with Carlos,” says Stella. “The collision in the first corner caused considerable damage to Oscar’s car.” The incident, which noticeably damaged Piastri’s underbody, was investigated by the stewards, but had no consequences for Sainz.
McLaren ‘confused’ over unpunished qualifying obstruction
And then there is, in the eyes of McLaren also had a third stroke of luck for Sainz in Monaco. “Together with the hindrance in qualifying, Carlos was very lucky this weekend. That earned him a podium place,” says Stella.
Sainz was called to the stewards after Monaco qualifying for getting in the way of Williams driver Alex Albon on a fast lap in Q1. It was ruled that this was not a clear case of interference, meaning the Spaniard was allowed to keep his starting position.
Stella is not happy with this verdict. At the previous Grand Prix in Imola, Piastri received a grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen in qualifying. For McLaren, these are two similar cases with different results. “We’re happy for Carlos, but especially given the impediment on Saturday, we’re still a little confused about what the difference was between this incident and Imola,” said Stella.