Nicholas Latifi has had a difficult season at Williams Racing this season and the Singapore Grand Prix was no change to that trend.
An incident occurred on lap seven that saw Alfa Romeo Orlen F1 Team driver Zhou Guanyu attempt to get past Latifi in a battle for eighteenth. The Canadian driver was seen to squeeze Zhou into the wall with their contract making Zhou’s car not fit for the rest of the race, meaning he retired.
Latifi hit the wall as a result of the collision, the team tried to get him back in the race but he was forced to retire under the safety car due to too much lasting damage as a result of the collision.
The FIA launched an investigation into the incident and awarded the Canadian driver a five-place grid penalty for next week’s Japanese Grand Prix and two penalty points on his super license.
The stewards’ decision read that “ZHO was attempting to overtake LAT on a straight approaching turn 5 and had sufficient room, taking the normal racing line. LAT pulled to the left, not leaving one car width to ZHO and resulting in significant contact between the cars.”
This problem adds to a poor weekend for Williams, with both drivers retiring from Grand Prix after separate incidents.
