Las Vegas Grand Prix Steward: 'Sainz's grid penalty was wrong'

It was one of the most controversial moments of the season: the dislodged manhole cover during the first free practice for the Las Vegas GP. The object drilled into the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, who suffered major damage to his Ferrari as a result. The car even had to be written off, forcing the Spaniard to use extra engine parts. This earned him a grid penalty.

Team boss Fred Vasseur was furious after the incident - which meant that the second practice session could not be finished until deep into the American night - firstly because of the fact that a manhole cover could just get loose, then because of the grid penalty Sainz had to take (through no fault of his own).

Warwick did not want to punish Sainz

One of the sports commissioners who had to make the decision to give Sainz a grid penalty was Derek Warwick. At a motorsport gala, the Briton revealed that he and his three colleagues had no desire at all to give the Spaniard a grid penalty, but were bound hand and foot by the regulations.

"It's a difficult job for a steward, the same as a referee, and we've got to be impartial, we've got to be strict and we've got to be hard sometimes even when it hurts us," the Briton said at the Autosport Awards in London on Sunday night. "The penalty we had to give Sainz in Vegas, it felt wrong, it was wrong, we worked very hard for it not to happen but they're the rules," Warwick said, according to ESPN.