Footage of Logan Sargeant slamming into the back of Nyck de Vries during the Australian Grand Prix had Formula 1 fans calling for a penalty at the next race as Karun Chandhok slammed the FIA for its inconsistency.
The collision was one of several which occurred at the same time after the third standing start of the race in Melbourne. The red flags were flying once again just two laps from the end as chaos ensued when all the drivers pushed as hard as they could into the first couple of corners.
Carlos Sainz hit the back wheel of Fernando Alonso's car and sent him into a spin. And, almost immediately after, the two Alpines slammed into each other as Pierre Gasly lost traction after coming back onto the track and could not avoid sandwiching Esteban Ocon into the wall.
Neither of the Frenchmen received a punishment for that and nor did Sargeant for taking out De Vries. But Sainz was slapped with a five-second penalty which had much bigger ramifications than usual, as the race finished behind the safety car.
That meant the Ferrari racer was unable to stretch out a gap behind him to mitigate the impact of the time penalty. He crossed the finish line fourth, but ended up in last place of the 12 drivers who finished the race and left Melbourne without any points.
Sainz felt the punishment was unjust and so did Martin Brundle. "That's an inconsistent penalty for Sainz from a standing start in the early corners," he wrote on social media after watching from home on a weekend away from Sky Sports duty.
Chandhok agreed after watching a clip of Sargeant slamming into the back of De Vries, posted by a fan who called for the American racer to be given a grid penalty for the next race in Azerbaijan. "This is a very fair point. Penalties should be consistent across the field," he wrote.
"The fact this was completely ignored makes the penalty for Carlos Sainz seem even less fair. I should say that whilst I agree that Carlos was more at fault for that incident, the part I think is unfair is that a five second penalty during a safety car finish seems to be disproportionate to the crime."
Speaking after the race, Sargeant blamed the crash on the new set of soft tyres he had fitted to his Williams before the race restart. "The last restart was was pretty weird," he told F1 TV.
"I felt like I braked [like] I did on the previous two starts, but it just seemed like nothing was up to temperature – brakes, tyres. I hit the pedal and it was immediate. Both fronts locked and there was nothing I could do from there.
"Sorry to Nyck. I didn't want to end the day like that. It was a tough enough day as it was. It was disappointing."
