'Blind' Sainz calls for steward leniency after Piastri near-miss

Carlos Sainz has revealed he was left "blind" by his Ferrari team when narrowly avoiding contact with McLaren's Oscar Piastri in Dutch Grand Prix qualifying.

Sainz was emerging from the pits in wet conditions during the first segment of qualifying at Zandvoort and drifted across to the left-hand side of Turn 2, just as Piastri's McLaren was arriving at low speed.

The Ferrari is alleged to have committed a "dangerous manoeuvre" and has been summoned to the stewards over the incident having qualified sixth with Piastri down in eighth.

"I left the pit lane and they didn't tell me he was coming," Sainz told media including RacingNews365.com.

"At the same time, I think he was on an in-lap, so it was not too much of an issue.

"With the spray, you cannot see in the mirror, you are basically blind and if they don't tell you on the radio, it is very difficult to see.

"Hopefully, it did not affect his qualifying as he made it to Q2 and Q3, and normally the stewards are a bit more lenient when that happens."

Ferrari did not tell Sainz

"The truth is we did an almost perfect qualifying, with nearly perfect execution," added the Spaniard.

"A car that was on the limit to be in the top 10, we put it P6.

"If the hearing goes ahead and I get a penalty, then 1% of a mistake has a very big effect.

"I am very happy with the way we executed [the session], so it is a shame that one little detail could affect us, but hopefully is it not the case.

"If you had asked me before qualifying that I would get sixth, I would have signed the paper as it has been a tough weekend.

"I missed FP1, FP3 was wet so my only dry laps was in FP2, and I had to experiment in Q3, and still put it P6, so I need to be happy."