Sainz accuses Alonso of engineering penalty 'like always' after Spanish GP clash

Carlos Sainz accused compatriot Fernando Alonso of deliberately provoking a penalty against him at the first Spanish Grand Prix held at the new Madring circuit, after the pair collided on lap 14 while battling for 17th place.

Alonso was attempting to draw alongside Sainz on the approach to the Turn 5 chicane when Sainz drifted right to take the racing line. With the wall close on his right, Alonso had no room to escape, and Sainz’s rear-right wheel clipped the Aston Martin’s front-wing endplate. Alonso immediately radioed race control to flag the incident — a well-worn tactic to ensure stewards take notice.

“At the start, he crashed into two people,” Alonso said over the radio. “Now he squeezed me into the wall in the braking.”

The stewards agreed with Alonso’s version of events. Their determination stated that Sainz “moved towards the right edge of the track after the deceleration phase had commenced, causing both cars to slightly make contact,” and that he “should have left more space for Car 14 on the outside.” A five-second time penalty was issued, upgraded from the standard black-and-white flag because contact had been made.

Sainz was unapologetic. “It’s the nature of that corner when you turn right, and I think he complained on the radio so he managed to get me a penalty like always,” he said after the race. “There’s only space for one — there’s not even space for two — and you cannot keep looking in your mirror while you’re turning right-left because you need to look forward. I don’t think Fernando was alongside me or anything.”

The incident overshadowed what was already a difficult afternoon for Sainz. He had also made contact with Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bulls car in the opening-lap concertina at Turn 1, though stewards ruled that a racing incident. The damage proved costly: floor damage sustained in that first-lap contact was eventually deemed to be hurting his pace enough that the team called him in to retire.

Alonso, meanwhile, crossed the line in 17th place, two laps behind the leaders — a result that did little to soften the mood between Spain’s two most celebrated drivers after a race that had already drawn criticism for the Madring circuit’s layout.