Carlos Sainz given warning after British GP ‘dangerous driving’ infringement
4th July 2025Williams Carlos Sainz has been given a warning by the stewards at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix for his incident during Free Practice 2.
Feature image credit: Creative Commons
Williams’ Spaniard has been given a warning for ‘driving in a manner potentially dangerous to other drivers’ as he spun out at the Silverstone circuit during FP2.
Sainz was on a hot lap going through Luffield, turn seven, when he lost the rear of his car and went into a spin, just missing the rear of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari. The Williams driver stopped with his car stationary across the track between turns seven and eight.
When he finally got going again, Sainz created a hazard for the Kick Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg, who was approaching the scene of Sainz’s incident. The German was able to pass the Spaniard with minimal issue due to the double-waved yellow flags.
The stewards heard from Sainz and his team representative and heard that he couldn’t look right to ensure it was clear, thanks to the head restraints and the height of the headrest.
In their report, the Stewards stated:
“From examining the onboard footage and after hearing the driver, it was apparent that the driver of Car 55 [Sainz] did not look right to see if there was a car coming towards him.
“The driver informed us that he was not able to look to the right because of the FHR [Frontal Head Restraint] device and the height of the headrest. He also said that he misjudged where exactly he was on the track and expected cars to have space to pass behind him.
“Car 55 moving forward resulted in Car 27 [Hulkenberg] having to change direction by moving to the left to avoid a collision with Car 55. Because the section of the track was double yellow flagged the danger to Car 27 was mitigated somewhat.
“However, that did not obviate the need for a driver to ensure that he did not pose a danger to other drivers, including by not moving if he was at all unsure.
“We did not think that the current situation resulted in a danger to other drivers, particularly given the double yellow flags, however, it did have the potential to be dangerous. We accordingly administered a warning to the driver of Car 55.”
Sainz would be hoping for a better weekend this week than he did last time out in Austria, as the Spaniard did not start the race as his car caught fire due to problems with the brakes.
However, the British GP weekend has not delivered favourable results so far for the Spaniard, who finished 13th in FP1 and 16th in FP2, on Friday.
Free Practice 3 will get underway on Saturday at 11:30am local time ahead of qualifying at 3pm.
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
