Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz has been handed a three-place grid penalty ahead of Sunday’s German Grand Prix for impeding Williams’ Felipe Massa in qualifying at Hockenheim.
The Brazilian was in his last flying lap in Q2 when he encountered a slow Sainz ahead of him into Turn 2. Despite the Spaniard’s best efforts to jump out of the way, the stewards have eventually decided to sanction him.
Having qualified 13th, Sainz will thus have to line up 16th on the grid. The 21-year-old also received two penalty points for the incident.
Massa survived the Q2 scare and managed to advance through to Q3 where he qualified 10th.
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