Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn says Jolyon Palmer was to blame for the collision with Felipe Nasr in the Italian Grand Prix and said a penalty for her driver is “totally not understandable”.
Nasr and Palmer came together on the exit of the first chicane, with the Sauber moving across to the outside of the track and contact between the two pitching Nasr into a spin while also puncturing his right rear tyre. Speaking to F1i after the race, Kaltenborn said she was surprised the Brazilian was penalised when he was ahead on track.
“For me it’s totally not understandable how he could get that penalty,” Kaltenborn said. “For me it was very clear that it is not his fault. He was clearly in front, he also had no way to see what that car behind him was doing so it was very clear whose fault it was. I could never have thought he would even get a penalty.
“Then of course the car was damaged so badly that he couldn’t continue. You saw the floor, you saw the sparks coming from it so his race was unfortunately over.”
And Kaltenborn explained Sauber took its time to make sure the car was safe to return to the track after Nasr re-emerged from the garage after a number of laps to take a ten second time penalty for the incident.
“We were checking the car, we had not retired the car. We were checking the car and made sure it was safe to go out.”
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