An incident between Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton during qualifying earned the attention of the Japanese Grand Prix stewards.

A blocking incident during Q2 resulted in the FIA stewards calling upon Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton to visit them for a chat before giving the Williams driver a three-place grid penalty.

Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton summoned before the stewards

Hamilton was embarking upon a flying lap late in Q2 when he encountered a slow-moving Sainz through the first two corners, forcing the Ferrari driver to back off. Hamilton still made it through into Q3 despite the block.

With the incident seemingly a slam-dunk case of impeding on Sainz’s part, the stewards called upon both drivers to explain the incident and determine whether a punishment was warranted.

The summons was issued after qualifying, with both called after an “Alleged breach of Article 37.5 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations – Car 55 [Sainz] allegedly impeding Car 44 [Hamilton] in Turn 1 at 15:47.”

Article 37.5 reads, “Any driver taking part in any free practice session, the qualifying session or the sprint qualifying session who, in the opinion of the stewards, stops unnecessarily on the circuit or unnecessarily impedes another driver shall be subject to the penalties referred to in Article 37.4.”

Sainz was heard on team radio questioning his team following the incident, saying, “What happened with Hamilton into Turn 1?” with his race engineer replying to say they’d have a look once Sainz was back in the garage.

After their investigation, the stewards issued Sainz with a three-place grid penalty, confirming that the Williams driver had unnecessarily impeded Hamilton.

“[Sainz] was on an in-lap after having completed a push lap when [Hamilton] was starting its push lap, and [Hamilton] had to move off track to avoid [Sainz] in Turn 1,” the stewards said.

“[Sainz] stated that he did not have any warning from the team, of the approach [Hamilton] on a push lap. He stated that he was caught completely by surprise and, because of the approach speed of Hamilton, and the angle of his car, he could not see [Hamilton] in his mirrors.

“However, notwithstanding the above, the team had ample warning that [Hamilton] was on an out lap whilst [Sainz] was on its push lap. Also, more than 8 seconds elapsed from when it was obvious [Hamilton] was not going into the pits and hence was going to start a push lap, and when [Sainz] could have taken appropriate action if the driver had been warned by the team.

“It is noted that the standard penalty guideline for this offence during Qualifying, irrespective of whether it was the fault of the driver or the team, is a 3 grid position penalty, and therefore the Stewards find that the standard penalty should be applied.”

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“I got no warning from the team on this one,” Sainz said after the session and prior to the penalty being applied.

“I think we, as a team, messed up. I overtook so many cars on my push lap, and they were all on in-laps. When I overtook Lewis on my push lap, I probably didn’t believe he was on an in-lap, too.

“Then, suddenly, he opened a lap behind me, and I went into Turn 1, pulling on the car, and he was pushing, and we missed it.

“[He] still made it to Q3, and I got no warning, which sometimes helps in the penalty application, but yeah, we’ll see what happens.”

Sainz’s penalty thus results in him lining up in 16th on the grid, with Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda moving up to 13th and 14th, respectively.

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