Williams rookie Sergey Sirotkin has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Spanish Grand Prix, as well as a disqualification from Free Practice 1 on Friday, leaving the Russan disappointed as he'll be fighting a very uphill battle on the Circuit de Catalunya.
Things aren't really looking up for Williams, are they? The team is struggling enough as it is, sometimes looking like the slowest team on the grid. The pace certainly improved a lot in Baku, but Sirotkin's horrible start of the Azerbaijan GP, in which he first slammed into Sergio Perez in the very first corner and then punctured his tyre moments after forcing him to retire certainly ruined Williams' good qualifying result.
The incident we just described there cost him a penalty as well. Three places on the grid, and disqualification from FP1, meaning that Robert Kubica will be manning the FW41.
"Of course it's bad," the Russian said.
"We clearly saw it differently than the race directors, but we can't change that anymore now.
"I can only accept the punishment now and look ahead to the weekend."
Sirotkin managed to look at the bright side of the whole situation (apparently there is one), as he thinks Kubica's time in the FW41 will mean good things for the team.
"It's not ideal because every driver wants to drive as many laps as possible.
"At the same time, the feedback of three drivers is better than that of two, so from that perspective, it has something positive too."
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