Carlos Sainz Jnr said some rivals made “borderline unacceptable” moves after contact with two other drivers ended his Monaco Grand Prix.
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The Williams driver was running inside the points when the race resumed after the red flag. Following the restart he was first hit by Nico Hulkenberg and then by Franco Colapinto, leaving his car damaged beyond repair.
“Unfortunately, at the restart, some people decided to risk everything to try and get a point or two,” Sainz said. “I was the victim of people being very overoptimistic and making a mistake that honestly was borderline unacceptable.”
The sequence began at the Fairmont Hotel hairpin where Hulkenberg pushed Sainz into a barrier. Sainz then carried on to Portier and was struck by Colapinto.
“Every year around Monaco, when you get to turn six [Fairmont], there’s a bunch-up and you need to lift. You know you might contact the car in front because everyone’s trying to get through that corner,” Sainz added. “So it’s hard to understand how, with so much experience, mistakes like this still happen and can ruin my race while others are fighting for whatever they were fighting for.”
The stewards gave Hulkenberg a 10-second penalty for the first collision, noting he “turned into car 55 [Sainz] in turn eight [sic] causing a collision.”
No further action was taken over Sainz’s subsequent contact with Colapinto two corners later. The stewards concluded that the second collision occurred as Sainz attempted to move out of the racing line after the initial impact.
“The stewards concluded that the collision with car 55 was caused by the unexpected change of direction of car 55,” the report said. “Car 55 allowed other cars to pass following its prior collision with car 27 [Hulkenberg], which caused damage to car 55. Car 55 then attempted to move to the right off the racing line and was collided with by car 43 [Colapinto].”
Hulkenberg said he could not have done more to avoid the contact after he had already swerved to avoid Esteban Ocon. “If you do a restart with seven laps to go, of course it’s going to be heated,” he said.
“I had to avoid Esteban, I dove on the inside to avoid running into his back. I ended up on the very inside at the hairpin with maximum lock. I couldn’t turn any more and I couldn’t vanish, and Carlos obviously came around and we made contact. It’s unfortunate, but I don’t know what else to say.”
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