Alonso learns fate over Sainz China sprint summons

Fernando Alonso has been handed a 10 second time penalty and three penalty points for his collision with Carlos Sainz in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint.

On Lap 16, a slow Alonso, hanging onto third place, was passed around the outside by Sainz through Turns 7 and 8, but the Aston Martin driver launched a late-braking move into Turn 9.

This made contact with Sainz, and demoted both one place as Sergio Perez nipped past. Sainz sustained damage and Alonso a front-right puncture that ended his race early.

In their verdict, the stewards found that: "as per the guidelines on driving standards, which was agreed with the teams, an infringement of this nature required that a baseline penalty of 10 seconds was to be added to the time of a car that caused a collision.

"Article 54.3 of the Sporting Regulations states if the 10-second penalty is imposed after the end of a sprint session, then 10 seconds will be added to the elapsed time of the driver concerned. We accordingly added 10 seconds to the elapsed time of Car 14."

Reflecting the fact that a 10-second penalty had been added to the time of a driver who retired, the stewards indicated that rules should be changed.

"As an aside to the FIA, we note that the language in the regulations as to when a car has retired and the resultant consequences on penalties that may be imposed or served, especially when that car is otherwise classified, is somewhat unclear and we would recommend that the FIA considers making the necessary amendments to bring greater clarity to this issue," concluded the statement.

Alonso now moves onto six penalty points in the 12-month period, with 12 the threshold to trigger a one-race ban.