Lando Norris and George Russell have questioned the stewards’ decision to allow Carlos Sainz to retain third place at the Monaco Grand Prix red flag restart, with the latter labelling the decision as ‘strange’ and ‘not correct’.
Sainz lined up third on the grid and challenged second-placed starter Oscar Piastri when the lights went out. However, the pair made light contact with the Ferrari driver picking up a puncture as a result. This sent him straight on into the run-off area at Casino, dropping him to the back of the running cars.
Fortunately for the Spaniard, there was more significant contact further back as Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen collided, sending both cars into the outside wall at Beau Rivage and collecting the other Haas of Nico Hulkenberg. With significant debris strewn across the Monte Carlo tarmac, the stewards were left with no option but to throw the red flag.
Previously, Sainz’s race looked to be all but over, but the red flag recount meant that when the cars lined up on the grid to take the restart, the 29-year-old Spaniard was allowed to return to his P3 grid slot. Norris, who would have been promoted onto the podium if his rival was forced to start at the back, was less than impressed with this decision.
“I don’t think it’s the most fair thing, but I’m sure there’s been moments in the past where maybe I’ve been fortunate from it and they could have fixed the car a little bit or something like that,” he said.
“When you think of it in just a blunt way, it is frustrating and unfair, that because someone makes a mistake and because of a certain amount of cars or whatever, whatever the rule is, didn’t cross the line before the red flag and blah, blah, that he gets to undo that mistake and gets a free pit stop. It’s unfair.”
Russell also took exception to the stewards’ leniency. He finished the race in a season’s best P5 but would have been promoted to P4 if Sainz was forced to start from the back end of the field at the restart. “It’s not correct,” he protested. “I don’t know what the ruling is exactly. But yeah, that was a bit strange.”
