By Chris Medland - Jul 23, 2022, 8:49 AM ET

Sainz, Magnussen to start French GP from back of the grid

Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen will make up the back row of the French Grand Prix, after both drivers took extensive power unit penalties.

Ferrari had already committed Sainz to a ten-place grid penalty on Friday when he used a control electronics that was outside his allocation, but in similar form to Charles Leclerc in Canada, the majority of the changes were taken on Saturday with Sainz receiving a new internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K.

The number of new components taken leads to an automatic back of the grid start, but Sainz will not necessarily start in 20th position.

That’s because Magnussen has taken the same four components that Sainz has on Saturday, also leading to the same punishment. With two drivers receiving a back of the grid start, their quickest lap times in qualifying will decide who starts from 19th position and who is 20th.

Sainz had been quickest in FP2 but then Ferrari slipped behind Max Verstappen in the final session, with the championship leader topping the times by 0.354s from Sainz and 0.637s from Leclerc.

Topics

carlos sainz

kevin magnussen

Formula 1

Chris Medland

While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.

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