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Sainzo was invited to change wheels at the same time as Norris. To ensure that everything was going well during the double pit lane work, the Spaniard stopped the Stroll that was coming behind him at the entrance to the pitlane. The case was investigated and in the end neither Sainz nor McLaren were sanctioned.
Otmar Szafnauer commented on the case of the Wokingians competing for third place in the team championship with Racing Point:
“It was too slow, which is not allowed! He was very slow to beat us during the show. It had happened that Stroll had just returned. It completely changed the image of our competition, we should not have done it! ”
The situation was investigated by competition supervisors, and gave the reasons for his decision as follows:
“The team did not ask for a slowdown of car 18 [Strollhoz] compared to just 2.4 tenths of a second ahead. Car 55 [Sainz], it is normal practice to accelerate and then decelerate to the permitted 80 km / h when approaching the entrance. ”
“Sainz drove at 80 km / h for about five seconds while slowing down to about 70 km / h. We estimate that it would have reached the assembly team approximately 0.6 tenths of a second earlier if it had maintained its initial speed. ”
“This slowdown was not intended to prevent a ‘double stack’ as the 55 was still far from being a garage.”
“We also accept the Spanish opinion, supported by video, that they were able to cleanly change the wheels on their car, and that several team members from other stables were present in the box at the time.”
“Given that Stroll was unable to maintain the speed limit for just one second while driving into the pit lane, we do not think McLaren’s action was a disadvantage.”
“We looked at the speed data that was recorded after the wheel changed. We didn’t see the 55 car slow down unreasonably. “
The judges said they would normally make decisions in similar situations during the race, but after an unclear situation, they were more judgmental by looking at the telemetry data.
The McLaren team thus became Racing Point seven points ahead third in the constructor table.
