Sergey Sirotkin has questioned why the FIA did not speak to him about the first lap, turn two clash with Sergio Pérez during Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix before handing him a grid drop penalty for the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Williams Martini Racing driver admitted he did not know whether the penalty was for his contact with the Mexican at turn two, or the subsequent contact with Nico Hülkenberg and Fernando Alonso on the following straight, but either way he felt it was unfair that he was penalised at all, particularly without being spoken
“I was not even asked [about the penalty], to be honest,” Sirotkin is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “We saw replay hundreds of times and none of us probably find it obvious why.
“it is such a chaotic race, you know, when so many crazy things happening. It was a bit of a contact, but it’s racing and especially it’s a first lap, it is a start of the race.
“No one asked. I did not get the point what [the penalty was] for. I was really sure it’s for the contact afterwards, which would be in the same way also unfair, but to me it had much more something under it.”
Sirotkin felt he would have been in a good position to run inside the top ten had the contact with Alonso and Hülkenberg not occurred, particularly as he had escaped the brush with Pérez without any damage.
“I checked when I got out of the car, I went to see my nose on purpose and it was zero, zero, zero [damage] on the nose,” said the Russian.
“It was exactly perfect [to] kind of maintain position, because in still chaotic things like this you still need to be – if you are not doing something, the people [are] doing something on you.
“Exiting Turn 2 I was really, like, wow, that was right on the limit, but it was perfect.”
