Pierre Gasly was angry after being knocked out of Q1 having been impeded by Carlos Sainz; Sainz was later given a three-place grid penalty for Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix; watch the Canadian GP live on Sky Sports F1 at 7pm on Sunday, with build-up from 5:30pm
Sunday 18 June 2023 12:10, UK
Alpine's Pierre Gasly has accused Carlos Sainz of "unacceptable and unfair" driving after being impeded by the Ferrari during Canadian Grand Prix Qualifying.
In a dramatic end to the first part of the wet session, Sainz slowed down approaching the final corner, creating chaos as the cars following him were left at risk of not crossing the start-finish line in time to set a final flying lap.
Gasly, who was coming down the main straight - that precedes the final chicane - at full speed, was forced to run off track and lost the opportunity to set a flying lap, which resulted in him being knocked out in 17th.
Sainz finished eighth, but was given a three-place penalty by the stewards for the incident, demoting him to 11th on the grid for Sunday's race.
"I don't think any words can express the disappointment and frustration right now," Gasly told Sky Sports F1.
"You put so much work into free practice, building your weekend, extracting everything out of Qualy. We did everything right, that lap was good enough for top six. Even if I lost a couple of tenths with a bit of traffic, it would have been good enough for top 10.
"Carlos did the worst job possible to stay completely on the racing line. For me, that's completely unacceptable and unfair. I have no words to explain what happened."
Asked if he held Sainz or the Ferrari pit wall responsible for the incident, Gasly continued: "You rely a lot on the team but the whole team, when they come to Canada know it's a dangerous one.
"We know that last chicane, everyone is bumping into each other and you have to pay extra attention. The bare minimum is to at least be off line. First, this was impeding and second, it was extremely dangerous.
"If I smash him at 300kph, it puts him in danger and also myself. It's completely unfair.
"Today, it ruined my entire day. Tomorrow, we will start in P17 so it will impact my race.
"Obviously, there should be something [punishment] but, at the end of the day, it won't give us back what we should have had and this is what I care about the most. I'm just really gutted."
Sainz appeared to dismiss Gasly's criticism, suggesting the incident was only highlighted because of the Frenchman's reaction on radio, which initially saw him call for the Spaniard to be "banned".
"It was very tight with the flag, it was about to fall," Sainz said.
"I got impeded seven times today and I'm not shouting on the radio at Turn 13. Other drivers choose to use the radio more than others. Today I was impeded many, many times.
"Some incidents are under investigation, some are not. It depends how much you shout on the radio.
"I had to let other cars go and I couldn't get out of the way. I did my best to get out of the way and tried to go.
"I had to go, if not I would have missed my qualifying lap also. I was getting impeded at the time too."
Sainz had endured a challenging final practice earlier on Saturday, slamming into the barrier and leaving his team with a repair job that continued right up until just a few minutes before the start of Qualifying.
During that time Sainz had already been to see the stewards, having been summoned for impeding Williams' Alex Albon on two occasions on the same part of the track.
Sainz escaped punishment as the stewards take a more lenient approach to practice incidents.
He added: "One of the trickiest (Qualifying) by far in my career, especially coming from the incident (in P3)."
Sunday June 18
5.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Canadian GP build-up
6:55pm: The Grandstand with Daniel Ricciardo and Will Arnett (via red button)
7pm: THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX
9pm: Chequered Flag Canadian GP reaction
10pm: Ted's Notebook
