Listen to this article
At the final restart with two racing laps to go Sainz made contact with Fernando Alonso, spinning the Aston Martin driver around.
The race was red-flagged again and the FIA opted to run the final lap to the flag behind the safety car using the previous grid order, which meant that Alonso regained his third place.
Sainz, who pitted under the first safety car for Alex Albon’s accident only to lose out because rivals were handed a free tyre change when it turned into a red flag, took the final restart in fourth place.
However, he was awarded an in-race, five-second penalty for causing a collision.
Sainz was sitting in his car awaiting the resumption when told of the penalty, and he made it clear on team radio that he felt he should have been able to state his case to the stewards.
Meanwhile, rival teams were able to tell their drivers to keep up in the safety car queue in order to take advantage. In the final classification, Sainz dropped out of the points in 12th …