Ericsson, Kvyat given three-place grid penalties

2016 Monaco Grand Prix

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Marcus Ericsson and Daniil Kvyat will both receive three-place grid penalties for the Canadian Grand Prix after stewards found them to be at fault for separate collisions.

Kvyat was awarded a three-place grid penalty as well as two penalty points on his license for avoidable contact with Kevin Magnussen, while Ericsson was given the same punishment for colliding with his team mate later in the race.

The penalties leave Ericsson with six penalty points on his super license, while Kvyat currently has seven. Any driver who receives 12 points in a single 12 month period will recieve a one race suspension.

Kimi Raikkonen was also investigated after the race following his collision with Romain Grosjean, but no further action was taken by the stewards.

2016 Monaco Grand Prix

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    Will Wood
    Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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    48 comments on “Ericsson, Kvyat given three-place grid penalties”

    1. It’s sad, but it seems Kvyat’s F1 career is all but finished now.

      1. Why is that sad? – his drive was again immature and reckless, this time he was rightly punished, because the other driver didn’t move or couldn’t move.

        1. Being partially Russian myself, I should be supporting Daniil, but I completely agree with Palle on this one. And I don’t think his career is quite over. Money talks and he has a good backing, so I imagine we will see him midfield for another 3-5 years.

      2. Poor Danii has gone to F1 hell!! Hero to zero in a few races… maybe he can get work as a extra in GOT.

    2. Joao Pitol (@)
      29th May 2016, 18:28

      wehrlein got 4 points today, for speeding under safetycar and ignoring blue flags.

      1. Kvyat should be banned from racing until he cools down and get rid of his frustations

        1. Räikkönen’s and Ericsson’s moves were more reckless in my opinion. None of those incidents really qualify for the label ‘dangerous’. A ban would simply not be justified, and I don’t think there’s anyone seriously considering doing that.

          1. Let’s get this straight. In an interview after he had retired, Ericsson (who had closed a 20+ second gap to Nasr at a rate of between 3 to 4 seconds per laps) said that the team had ordered Nasr to let him pass and that even Monisha Kaltenborn had been on the radio to Nasr to enforce the order. As Nasr still refused, Ericsson was given the go-ahead to try and overtake. At Rascasse, Ericsson lunged and was clearly alongside when both cars touched as they turned. Because Nasr choose not to use all the track available to his left, they collided.

            Now the race stewards may have decided that Ericsson was to blame, but I am certain that Felipe Nasr is the only one in the Sauber team that shares this view. Just compare with how meekly Rosberg complied with a similar order!

            1. Disobeying team orders is tricky. We’ve seen drivers refusing to follow them in recent years (Verstappen and Massa, to name just a couple of famous examples). In both cases, they argued that the possibility of their team mate gaining more positions than just this one was too small to give up their track position. And they weren’t wrong.
              I don’t think it was any different in this case. It was Monaco, after all. Nasr was on somewhat fresher tyres, on the same compound as Ericsson. And he was stuck a few tenths behind Grosjean, who was memorizing details of Pascal Wehrlein’s gearbox. So those 3-4 seconds per lap (which I can’t find anywhere in the data) were absolutely meaningless. He didn’t get past Nasr when he reached the back of the pack, so there was not a chance in hell he would’ve been able to overtake anyone else.

              ‘At Rascasse, Ericsson lunged and was clearly alongside when both cars touched as they turned. Because Nasr choose not to use all the track available to his left, they collided.’
              No, just no. That’s a distortion. They collided because Ericsson pulled off a brutal and reckless divebomb. There was no other option than penalising him, because Nasr didn’t do anything else. Ericsson’s maneuvre had absolutely nothing to do with acceptable behaviour on the track. I understand why he was frustrated, considering that he knew that the team were telling Nasr to get out of his way. But there simply is no excuse for what he did, that was the single most stupid thing to do in this kind of situation, and instead of achieving a minuscule improvement of their small chances, he completely destroyed them.

            2. Completely agree!

              Don’t know what tv channels various co-forum posters were watching this race on, but mine brought through the pitwall/driver radio communications on this one in full. As it was, Ericsson had asked the pit to be allowed to pass Nasr as Ericsson was now many seconds quicker per lap than his team mate. The pitwall said they would check metrics and get back. Pitwall then shortly after called Nasr, and said to him that he should let Ericsson pass through as Ericsson was much faster and had chance to catch and overtake cars further ahead before race end. Nasr sad he was not so happy about that and he did not think Ericsson would be able to overtake cars ahead anyway. Then the pitwall messaged that Ericsson should be let by and that Ericsson would be ordered to hand the place back to Nasr on last lap if Ericsson had not managed to overtake cars further ahead at that time. And next, the pitwall even dictated which turn when Nasr should let Ericsson pass him. And this was then radioed to Ericsson. I did not hear any radio messages after this, though they might have happened? But Ericsson clearly went to pass Nasr in that very turn the pitwall had specified.

            3. ‘And next, the pitwall even dictated which turn when Nasr should let Ericsson pass him. And this was then radioed to Ericsson. I did not hear any radio messages after this, though they might have happened? But Ericsson clearly went to pass Nasr in that very turn the pitwall had specified.’

              Sorry for being a skeptic, but that sounds fanciful.

              I heard Nasr arguing with the team, refusing to comply. Then I heard Ericsson’s sarcastic comment about Nasr’s radio obviously being broken, and the team’s similarly sarcastic reply to that. That was the last message that was broadcast, to my knowledge. Next thing we know, Ericsson brutalises him in Rascasse.

              Arranging an overtake in Rascasse makes zero sense, by the way. It’s way too slow a corner, too tight a section. Both drivers are bound to lose a lot of time if they swap places there. Beau Rivage, the tunnel entry, the harbour section before and after the chicane, the pit straight – all good spots to ease up on the throttle and let your team mate or a car lapping you get past without sacrificing too much time or incurring any risks. At Rascasse? Complete nonsense.
              I’ll eat my hat if anyone provides any meaningful material to prove me wrong. I don’t even own a hat, and I’m very confident I won’t need to buy one.

        2. Sergey Martyn
          29th May 2016, 20:05

          Dr Marko should be banned from F1 for making his drivers nervous.
          BTW Verstappen crashed too.

          1. THAT is a good remark! ;o)
            Marko is clearly stressing his young drivers more than they can handle for the moment.
            Both Kvyat and Verstappen totally overdriving themselves this weekend.
            Guess same could be said of Kvyat also the last race?

    3. frustrated and dangerous man on the tracks :-(

    4. Ericsson must have quite some balls, just running his teammate over for disobbeying a team order. And Nasr was talking about team orders to Ericsson last year, which wasn’t followed, so Sauber will have a “fun” sunday evening – I don’t think Nasr will disobey again:-)

    5. Odds on Kyvat making it to the end of the season surely getting longer with each passing race…

      1. By whom would he be replaced? Their guy in GP2 hasn’t won a race in the past 3 years.

      2. to make matters worse, wasn’t he one lap down on the entire field?

        1. That tends to happen when you start nearly 2 laps down due to the car malfunctioning…

    6. Strange Massa got away with his contact with Räikkönen. Not that I wanted a penalty, but a reprimand would have been fine as it triggered the clash between Räikkönen and Grosjean.

      1. what are you talking about Massa didn’t hit Raikkonen, Raikkonen hit the barrier.

        1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdWdV-z10HY

          It looked a bit like Massa pushed Räikkönen from behind. However, if you watch closely, there’s no indication of Räikkönen gaining any momentum when Massa comes close to him. I don’t think they touched, Räikkönen simply went straight on at an extremely slow speed because his front wing was stuck under the car. Massa almost collided with him due to the Finn’s extremely slow approach of the corner, but he was able to avoid contact.
          Both crashes were 100% Räikkönen’s fault, poor Romain Grosjean and lucky Felipe Massa had nothing to do with them.

          1. Ok, fine then.

          2. My understanding was that the Raikkonen investigation wasn’t for the crash itself, but for taking a heavily damaged car into the Monaco tunnel when he had had previous opportunities to stop. I’m guessing he didn’t get a penalty because he demonstrated that he was in fact capable of getting back to the pits without literally dropping any significant parts in the tunnel (there was at least one that came off just before the crest, but that’s after the tunnel and thus not covered by the special directive for the tunnel).

    7. Zantkiller (@)
      29th May 2016, 19:12

      Why did Hulkenberg not get a penalty for crossing the pit lane exit when he went on to slicks?

      Did the stewards just miss it?

      1. Didnt see that at all… Gonna have to watch replay. Ordinarily its a slam dunk penalts, crossing the line.

      2. I think sometimes they let that slide if it’s slicks on a wet patch. I’ve seen that before, but technically you’re right as he should of simply driven more carefully.

      3. Sometimes the stewards are a bit more lenient than other times. Nowadays drivers usually get away with crossing the white line. I believe last year Hamilton got a 5-second penalty, but at least it wasn’t a drive-through or a stop-and-go penalty as in the early 2000s.

      4. Was that Hulkenberg? that gives me piece of mind; i saw it too and i thought it was Perez; i wanted him penalized and out of Vettel’s way an i waited for that penalty for the rest of the race.
        If it was the Hulk, then i don’t care.

      5. The stewards were probably trying to decide something else at the time, judging from the large number of investigations they’ve had to do today…

    8. Comically poor driving by both of these drivers. Nasr didn’t cover himself in glory either mind you. This is the downside of having pay drivers and Sauber just have to accept that.

    9. I feel sorry for Kvyat, first he got dethroned from his fast seat…

      Then he is getting in to more accidents than Maldonado.

      He reminds me of Perez at McLaren, excellent driver, great speed, but unable to cope with pressure of a big team. He should get a sports psychologist asap, rebuild his season and aim to slowly get in to a podium here and there. Toro Rosso is an excellent team. He can do a briliant job land P5 and everyone will notice.

      We all saw his excellent quali. Kid has pace, but crashing again, makes him a liability.

      1. But Verstappen crashed more than him, and we don’t labelled him as liability. It was a tricky condition, in Monaco.

    10. how the hell did kimi not get a penalty? apart from him not actually hitting grosjean he did the exact same thing as kvyat to magnussen!

      1. @rigi wasn’t it because the lodged front wing meant he couldn’t turn right at Mirabeau Bas?

        1. Well Magnussen did same to Kvyat when returning to track after hitting the wall in tabaco. He moved across the circuit and hit Kvyat’s wheel probably even causing some damage. He was also way slow in the pool and la rascasse. That was Magnussen who should have been penalized.

          1. Kvyat was a lap down on Magnussen and still dive bombs him? Errr… no.

            1. Magnussen has bombed himself by going into the wall instead of apex in Tabaco.

      2. He couldn’t turn because of mechanical failure, not bad driving. Basic analysis jeez!

        1. Sergey Martyn
          30th May 2016, 6:28

          And with that failure he dragged his broken wind through the tunnel?

        2. What if Kvyat couldn’t effectively break after Magnussen hit his right front wheel? That would make it absolutely identical situation.

    11. Hamilton gets reprimands for entering the track the wrong side of a bollard in a practice session in Russia and for reversing all but 3ft in the pit lane after a late call from the stewards to scrutinize his car, both pretty much non-events, but will likely cost him 10 place grid penalty in the season. Raikkonen meanwhile gets away with driving through a tunnel on a wet track with parts of his car hanging off and potentially endangering the lives of his competitors.

      Well done F1.

      1. It seems Ferrari still have some pull.

    12. LH got away with two straight lines through the chicane. The first helped him jump DR.

      1. @blik, actually, that mistake almost cost him the lead of the race to Ricciardo – his last sector time was much slower than normal because he had to slow down when going over the speed bumps, so it clearly did not give him any benefit.

    13. After listening to the radiotraffic up until the crash, Nasr is clearly a tool.
      Even without team orders, Ericson did get almost completely alongside Nasr in that last corner so why he got a penalty is really strange.

      1. If Ericson was so fast why he was behind? And anyone can delay the brake time to catch someone on a corner, even if you’re slower. This is an sport, we need drivers trying to overtake, I thought people were tired with team decisions. Rosberg letting Hamilton pass was just mediocre and a loser move, he was afraid and showed this weakness.

    14. Claire Gorman
      31st May 2016, 21:34

      Some really really stupid driving at Monaco. Plenty of comedy value, but all of it unintentional. The Saubers were perhaps the most clumsy but its hard to pick a winner. Kimi must have driven with his eyes shut to crash at the slowest corner. Yes it was wet but still that was shoddy. Ricciardo must have wanted to slap his pit crew sideways so yes Lewis deserves the win due to his team working the best but thanks to several drivers believing they had superpowers and could change the laws of physics, we had an entertaining race, so bravo!

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