McLaren Formula ꦬ1 driver Carlos Sainz has been hit with a three-placꦅe grid penalty for the Turkish Grand Prix after impeding Sergio Perez during qualifying.

Sainz appeared to block Racing Point’s Perez during the second segment of qualifying at the Turkish Grand Prix. While Perez progressed to Q3 and ult𒁃imately went on to qualify behind Max Verstappen and teammate Lance Stroll, Sainz failed to make it through to the final part of qualifying.

Following an investigation, the Istanbul Park stewards ruled McLaren had warned Sainz that Perez was behind him as he exited the pits, but failed to make 𝔍way for the Racing Point driver fast enough.

The Spaniard, who ultimately took 13th, will subsequently drop to P16 for Sunday’s race. The penalty pr𒀰omotes Charles Leclerc up to 13th, Pierre Gasly to 14th and Kevin Magnussen up to 15th.

“The stewards heard from the driver of Car 11 (Sergio Perez), the driver of car 55 (Carlos Sainz) and bo๊th team representatives and have revi♐ewed multiple angles of video evidence and radio calls to car 55,” a stewards statement read.

“Car 55 was exiting💧 the pits as Car 11 passed through turn 1. Car 11 caught up to Car 55 in turn 2/3 and was unnecessarily impeded by Car 55 at that point and through several subsequent turns.

“While extraordinary track conditions clearly impacted the situation, radio communications 💟from the tea🍒m clearly warned Car 55 that Car 11 was behind him.”

Sainz has also been handed one penalty point on his superlicence, marཧking his first offence of the current 12-mo𝄹nth period.

McLar🎃en teammate Lando Norris and polesitter Lance Stroll are also under investigation for separate yellow flag infringements during qualifying.