The two most celebrated Spanish drivers on the grid could not even reach Q2 at their own race, and the weekend only got worse from there.
Carlos Sainz was eliminated in Q1 by five thousandths of a second on Saturday, edged out by his own Williams team-mate Alex Albon. He was then given a three-place grid penalty after qualifying for impeding Valtteri Bottas at Turns 6 and 7 in the closing minutes of Q1, dropping him from 17th to 20th on the grid at the Madring.
Fernando Alonso, the two-time world champion racing at his home Grand Prix, qualified 18th and inherited 17th after Sainz’s penalty.
The stewards found that Williams had failed to warn Sainz of Bottas approaching on a flying lap. “The team failed to inform the driver of Car 55 about Car 77 closing in on a flying lap and the driver did not take any action to make way for the incoming car,” they wrote in their verdict.
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Lap 14 at Turn 5
The public falling-out came the next day. On lap 14, Alonso attacked Sainz for 17th place into the Turn 5 chicane. Sainz took the racing line to the right, and his rear-right wheel clipped the Aston Martin’s front-wing endplate.
Alonso complained immediately on the radio, and the stewards handed Sainz a five-second penalty for moving under braking. Sainz was furious.
“He complained on the radio and he managed to get me a penalty, like always.”
Sainz argued the corner itself was the problem.
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“It’s the nature of that corner when you turn right, there’s only space for one, there’s not even space for two. You cannot keep looking in your mirror while you’re turning and doing a right-left because you need to look forward. I don’t think Fernando was alongside me or anything.”
Alonso: ‘At 340 kph’
Alonso told the story differently. He said Sainz had squeezed him toward the wall at high speed on the approach.
“I was just on the wall on the right, 340 km/h. I think it was not needed.”
On the collision itself, Alonso was blunt.
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“Carlos hit me and it meant we had to pit to replace the front wing.”
The Aston Martin dropped down the order after the unscheduled stop, and Alonso finished 17th, two laps down. Sainz did not make it to the flag at all, retiring with floor damage that stemmed from a separate opening-lap contact with Yuki Tsunoda.
Pole for Norris, disaster for Spain
While Spain’s two big names fought each other at the back of the field, Lando Norris took pole with a 1:31.824, edging Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by 0.011 seconds. Max Verstappen lined up third at +0.140, ahead of Lewis Hamilton (+0.189) and Charles Leclerc (+0.195).
Sainz leaves Madrid with a retirement and a five-second penalty on his record; Alonso leaves with a 17th place and a broken front wing.
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