Racing Bulls celebrated their first podium finish for four years yesterday but accused Williams driver Carlos Sainz Jnr of costing them an even better result.
Team principal Alan Permane said Sainz cost them the chance to get both cars in the top five by colliding with Liam Lawson.
“I feel very sorry for Liam, because without Sainz crashing into him he would have been right up there as well and would have finished P5,” said Permane.
The pair collided during the first restart on lap 27 when Sainz tried to pass Lawson around the outside of Tarzan. They made contact at the exit of the corner which damaged both cars and dropped them out of the points.
Sainz and Lawson blamed each other for the collision. The stewards came down in favour of the Racing Bulls driver, ruling Sainz did not get far enough alongside Lawson on the way into the corner to deserve to be given space, and handing him a 10-second time penalty.
The two drivers were well-placed to score points prior to their collision, having switched from their original sets of medium compound tyres to hard rubber during the Safety Car period. The damage dropped both to the rear of the field and meant they had to complete the race on used soft rubber.
Lawson finished 12th, one place ahead of Sainz. Alexander Albon took over Lawson’s seventh place following the collision and went on to finish fifth.
Lawson’s team mate Isack Hadjar took third, scoring the team’s first podium finish since 2021, when it competed under the name AlphaTauri.
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