Carlos Sainz has claimed it was "impossible to avoid" colliding with Oscar Piastri during the Hungarian Grand Prix, revealing that a problem with the FIA's blue flag system left him unaware he was about to be lapped. The incident occurred on lap 39 of 70 at Turn 2 of the Hungaroring.
Piastri, who had pitted from the lead of the race, found himself in traffic and attempted to lap Sainz's Williams. However, Sainz was engaged in a battle with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and had not been informed of the McLaren's approach.
"At this stage I had no idea I was about to get lapped," Sainz told media after finishing two laps down in 18th place. "On top of that, I was in a big fight with Fernando, trying to undercut him into the corner, and I would have expected Oscar to have been there. And even if he was there, or where I would have expected, he was in my [blind] spot on the angle. So it was impossible from my side to avoid him."
Sainz added that "probably a bit better communication would have helped, but at the same time it was a racing thing." The Spanish driver received a five-second time penalty for the incident but downplayed its impact: "I took the five seconds, but I don't care when I'm fighting for P18."
He believes the blue flag system failure should have led the stewards to classify the clash as a racing incident, and suggested Piastri — who later retired with an unrelated gearbox failure — could have exercised more caution given the known signalling problems.
"I'm really sorry for Oscar, but this time I think I have a pretty good excuse as to what happened," Sainz concluded. "I don't know if he could also have been a bit more careful given he is the one fighting for a podium, and positioned himself a bit more cautiously, because of the issues we were all having with the blue flags."
Sources
- [Crash.net — "Impossible to avoid" - Carlos Sainz reveals cause of Oscar Piastri clash in Hungary GP](https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1101936/1/impossible-avoid-carlos-sainz-reveals-cause-oscar-piastri-clash-hungary-gp)
