'Unnecessary' Alonso radio call led to penalty - Sainz

Carlos Sainz believes Fernando Alonso’s complaints on team radio resulted in the penalty handed out to the Williams driver during the Spanish Grand Prix.

The two Spaniards were fighting at their home race when Sainz defended the middle of the track on the approach to Turn 5, where the circuit curves right under braking for the opening left-hand section of a chicane. With Sainz not leaving a full car’s width, Alonso’s front wing hit the right rear of the Williams, and the stewards opted to give Sainz a five-second time penalty for the incident.

“With Fernando we were battling into Turn 5,” Sainz said. “Honestly into that corner is such a sketchy right-hander that I don't think two fit when it's so tight. I don't think he was ever alongside me, so I don't know why if he clipped my rear tire I got a penalty, but I guess he opened the radio, complained, got me a penalty, so he was happy. But a bit unnecessary in my opinion.”

Sainz also claims the track layout in that sector reduces the ability for a defending car to judge where an attacking car is, due to the lack of braking in a straight line.

“The nature of that corner is always going to lead to these kind of crashes because there's only space for one, there's not even space for two,” he said. “You cannot keep looking in your mirror while you're turning and doing a right-left because you need to look forward. At one point you need to focus on your own driving line and I don't think Fernando was alongside me or anything.”

While Alonso himself said he was squeezed into the wall but any damage did not impact his overall race result, Sainz was eventually forced to retire with damage from an earlier collision with Yuki Tsunoda.

“I had a really good start on the line,” Sainz said. “I think I got three or four positions on the hard tire and then a lot of bunching up into Turn 1 that caught me a bit out and I had a small contact with Tsunoda that damaged my floor. Unfortunately, from there on I had damage in the car and it was a race of survival because I had no rear downforce in the car for the rest of the race.

“We had nothing to lose on lap one, and I wanted to get a good start to see if we could get anything going in this race but in reality, even with a perfect race, we wouldn't have finished higher than 16th. So, not a lot to fight for.

“Hopefully this is the last year here in Madrid that I'm fighting for P16 and from next year onwards I can fight for something more, because honestly it's not ideal to be fighting at home for a P15, P16 all weekend.”