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Williams F1 driver Carlos Sainz narrowly avoided getting a penalty for a Red Flag infringement during the FP2 session at the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix. He had a tricky Friday compared to his teammate, Alex Albon, in the FW47 around the streets of Monaco, as he finished P7 and P13 in the FP1 and FP2, respectively.
The 30-year-old hustled the 2025 Challenger around the tight twisty streets in the Principality to extract maximum performance from the car. Meanwhile, he found himself in a bind in the FP2 sessions as he was under investigation for a red flag infringement when Isack Hadjar hit the barrier in the Nouvelle chicane. However, in a document released by the FIA, he was cleared of the investigation and escaped a penalty.
The race stewards said that the four-time F1 race winner was going fast in an attempt to overtake the slow-moving Alpine of Franco Colapinto. However, they acknowledged that he had significantly reduced the speed of his car, as visible in the delta time, and his overtake under red flag conditions was unavoidable despite the reduced delta time.
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Haas F1 driver Oliver Bearman did not enjoy a similar fate as he was given a 10-place grid penalty for the main race after he overtook in the red flag conditions. He was guilty of not slowing down under the conditions in the final sector of the track. The stewards believed that the late call from the team impacted the young British driver's situation, but he had already passed the car with the nearest light panels showing a red flag.
Carlos Sainz analyzes his Friday Practice session in Monaco
Carlos Sainz said he did not feel confident in the FW47 throughout the two Practice sessions despite making changes after the FP1 session (via F1):
"We started FP1 with a car that wasn’t giving me a lot of confidence, but I still managed to do some good laps. I had some work to do on setup and for FP2 we introduced some changes that unfortunately didn’t seem to work and we took a step back."
"We’ve got work for tomorrow, but I’m confident we can find the right balance and do a good build up for Qualifying," Carlos Sainz added.
The Spaniard only has 11 points from seven races and two Sprints in the 2025 season, while his teammate Alex Albon has scored 40 points. He has been on the podium in three of the last four editions of the Monaco GP with Ferrari.
