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Carlos Sainz qualified ahead of Williams team-mate Alex Albon at Spa-Francorchamps, then watched the result get ripped away. A 10-place grid penalty for fitting a fourth control electronics module — one more than the season limit — has dropped the Williams driver to 19th on the Belgian Grand Prix starting grid.
The penalty is the harshest of a chaotic qualifying aftermath that has reshuffled the entire back half of the grid. Sainz becomes the fifth driver this weekend to be punished for exceeding power unit component allocations. Red Bull's Isack Hadjar, who qualified 10th, triggered a penalty large enough to send him to the back of the grid under the rule that kicks in when a driver's total penalty exceeds 15 places. Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso are in similar positions. The net result: Sainz lines up 19th rather than 24th, absorbing a real-world loss of five places instead of 10.
The weekend had been miserable before the penalty even arrived. Sainz was three to five tenths off Albon in every session, battling an unidentified car problem that left him fighting for position with the Cadillacs. Albon towed him through Q1, though Albon himself missed the cut by 0.007 seconds. In Q2, Sainz edged Oliver Bearman's Haas for 15th by just 0.002 seconds.
Sainz said after qualifying that the car only came alive once significant changes were made ahead of the session, and that the team still cannot fully explain what caused the problems. Keep an eye on the championship standings as Hadjar's grid penalty adds further pressure on Red Bull's points push — Hadjar sits eighth in the drivers' table on 52 points heading into Sunday. All the action is live in our race centre.