Carlos Sainz hit with two penalty points and Mexico grid drop after Antonelli clash in Austin
Carlos Sainz’s strong United States GP weekend ended with the sound of locking brakes and a visit to the stewards — and it’ll follow him to Mexico City.
The Williams driver has been handed two penalty points on his superlicence and a five-place grid drop for the Mexican Grand Prix after stewards deemed him predominantly to blame for his lap-six collision with Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Turn 15 in Austin. It takes Sainz to four penalty points in his current 12-month window.
Until the contact, Sainz’s weekend had been quietly effective. He picked his moments in the sprint — and picked up the pieces after the McLarens tripped over each other — to grab third on Saturday, then made Q3 again for Sunday and started ninth. The race unraveled in that tight left-hander, where Sainz sent a move down the inside but didn’t get far enough alongside before the apex to earn racing room under the FIA’s Driving Standards guidelines. He locked up when the Mercedes turned in and the Williams was damaged out on the spot.
The stewards’ verdict was blunt: Sainz hadn’t achieved overlap prior to the apex and therefore had no right to space; the Williams was mostly at fault. With no chance to serve a time penalty due to retirement, the sanction converts to a grid drop for the next race.
Sainz didn’t entirely see it that way. He described the pass as a repeat of one he’d just pulled on Ollie Bearman in the same corner and argued Antonelli closed the door earlier than expected. He admitted to the lock-up but framed it as a reaction to the Mercedes coming across. In short: a small mistake, big consequences.
You could sense the frustration. He knew there were points on the table after Saturday’s podium in the sprint and a car that looked handier than the headline pace suggested. Post-race, he struck the usual racer’s balance between contrition and defiance — the “fine margins” speech with a few sharp edges. Play it safe, bank P8; roll the dice for P7 or P6, and sometimes you get nothing.
This isn’t the first time Sainz and Antonelli have shared a stewarding file this season. Two of Sainz’s existing penalty points came from Bahrain after forcing the Mercedes driver off the circuit. And last month, Williams successfully appealed two points that were originally given for a clash with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson at Zandvoort — a decision Sainz had publicly rubbished as a “complete joke” before it was overturned.
The broader context matters. Twelve penalty points in a 12‑month period equals an automatic ban for one race — and after years of being a theoretical threat, the system bit for the first time last season when Kevin Magnussen sat out a round. Sainz is nowhere near that line, but he’s now on four and has a grid penalty to serve at altitude in Mexico, where overtaking’s doable but costly if you’re starting in traffic.
Turn 15 at COTA, for what it’s worth, has long been a trap for the ambitious. The wide approach invites a late lunge, the apex narrows quicker than you remember, and the exit punishes even minor contact. It’s the kind of corner that flatters the decisive and punishes the optimistic-by-half a metre. On Sunday, Sainz landed on the wrong side of it.
For Williams, the sting is double. The five-place drop puts extra pressure on qualifying in Mexico and softens the momentum from that sprint podium — a result Sainz earned by being exactly the kind of opportunist the team signed him to be. For Antonelli, bruises and data; for Sainz, a note in the superlicence and a reminder that in 2025’s midfield elbows-out era, the line between “decisive” and “avoidable” is policed to the millimetre.
