The FIA stewards have opted to take no further action against Carlos Sainz over an alleged red flag infringement… which occurred yesterday at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The stewards explained that the late investigation was due to the potential infringement from FP2 on Friday only being flagged up to them on Saturday, with Sainz cleared of wrongdoing ahead of the all-important Monaco GP qualifying.

FIA explain Carlos Sainz verdict and delay

The second hour of practice in Monaco featured two red flag stoppages with Isack Hadjar and Oscar Piastri finding the wall, and a day later, the stewards investigated Sainz for potentially overtaking the Alpine of Franco Colapinto while the red flag was waving.

But, Sainz was spared any pre-qualifying heartbreak, with the stewards deciding to take no further action.

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Explaining their decision, the stewards wrote: “This alleged infringement was only reported to the stewards the next day, after the FP3 session was concluded.

“The stewards thereafter heard from the driver of Car 55 (Carlos Sainz), team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, telemetry, video, timing, team radio and in-car video evidence and determined that Car 55 overtook Car 43 at Turn 2.

“As Car 55 was going towards Turn 2, the session was red flagged. Car 55 was very close to Car 43 when that happened (42 metres). Car 55 was travelling at a significant speed, in excess of 250kph. Car 43, on the other hand, was on a slow lap on the left hand side of the track.

“As soon as the red flag was shown, Car 55 took immediate steps to slow down in a safe manner as required under Article 2.5.4.1 b) of Appendix H to the International Sporting Code. There was a significant speed delta between the two cars and the overtake was an inevitable consequence of that speed delta and the distance between the cars.

“In the circumstances, we took no further action.”

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