Carlos Sainz cleared of wrongdoing after revenge investigation

Carlos Sainz has avoided punishment for a Japanese Grand Prix practice incident involving Liam Lawson.

With 36 minutes gone on the clock during FP1, Sainz was slow out of the hairpin and appeared to block the track as Lawson's Racing Bulls machine came up behind.

The New Zealander, confused at Sainz's action, reported into the team, "Can you see what I'm seeing?" before the pair continued without further incident.

The pair were subsequently called for Sainz's driving unnecessarily slowly, with the stewards determining in their investigation that the Williams driver was not acting in response to being affected by Lawson through the previous corner.

Rather, Sainz had slowed to avoid impeding Jak Crawford, who was deputising for Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin for the opening practice session at Suzuka.

"Car 55 passed Car 30 after turn 9 and then slowed considerably through turns 10 and 11 with Car 30 close behind. It appeared from the video that the Driver of Car 55 had unnecessarily slowed to baulk Car 30 after Car 55 had been affected by Car 30 at turn 9, gone wide and then abandoned his push lap," the official stewards' report read.

"However, the Driver of Car 55 explained that he had slowed because he had received a message from his team that another car, Car 34 (Jak Crawford), was approaching from behind on a push lap and the Driver of Car 55 was slowing only to ensure that he did not impede Car 34.

"The Driver of Car 55’s account was confirmed by the team radio and Car 34 passed both Car 55 and Car 30 after the exit of turn 11. The Stewards therefore determined to take no further action."