Palmer sticks neck out for Kvyat: "Penalty was unbelievably harsh"

Formula 1 pundit and former driver Jolyon Palmer thinks Daniil Kvyat was not at fault for the first-lap incident with the two McLarens, even though the Russian got penalized for the collision with a drive-through penalty at the time.

Kvyat, who had the inside line on the two McLarens, had a touch of wheel spin and went slightly wide, causing him to collide with Sainz. This collision caused Kvyat to hit Norris' MCL34, who went flying as a result and heavily damaged his floor. Both of the 'Macca's races were ended at that point, as they lost a significant amount of race pace afterwards.

"Kvyat sticks right on the apex, and then just gets a little bit of wheelspin," Palmer analyses.

"Nothing too major, but it does shift him towards Sainz on the outside. He's steering completely right at this point. He knows there's a McLaren there [on the outside] he doesn't want to hit it.

"It's a racing incident. This is first lap stuff, Kvyat got a little bit sideways, he had a little twitch on the throttle but remember [this] is the first lap. Two drivers spun on the warm-up lap.

"I think the penalty was unbelievably harsh on Kvyat. I think it came from reputation because [he is] Dani 'Torpedo' Kvyat and when there's an incident, then immediately you look towards Kvyat."