Not 5s, not 10s, not even 20s, Carlos Sainz gets penalised a whole lap!

The Spaniard, who finished twelfth on the road, overtook the Safety Car after the "LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE" message had been displayed, despite not being entitled to do so under Article B5.13.4c of the FIA F1 Regulations.

Although the Williams driver was lapped at Safety Car Line 1 when entering the pit lane, due to the specific track and pit lane configuration at Silverstone he had temporarily unlapped himself by the time he crossed the line at the end of the lap during which he crossed Safety Car Line 1 for the second time after the Safety Car was deployed.

Consequently, the Williams was not a lapped car for the purposes of Article B5.13.4 c) and was therefore not entitled to overtake the Safety Car when the "LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE" message was displayed.

However, Sainz did unlap himself once the message was displayed by Race Control.

The stewards noted that, after completing his pit stop, Sainz's Williams once again was a lapped car when it re-joined the track and, given the exceptional track layout at this event, the stewards understood how the sequence of events may have contributed to his team's confusion.

The Williams representative acknowledged that the team nevertheless made two errors: firstly, by failing to recognise that Sainz was not a lapped car at the relevant reference point under Article B5.13.4 c), and secondly, by failing to note that the Spaniard was not included in the Race Control message identifying the cars permitted to overtake the Safety Car.

The Williams representative accepted that they inadvertently gained a lap when they were not entitled to do so.

In determining the appropriate penalty, the stewards considered Article 12.4.1.i of the FIA International Sporting Code.

They were satisfied that the penalty lap is one of the penalties available to them under the FIA International Sporting Code and considered it to be the most appropriate penalty in the circumstances of this case.

The penalty therefore demoted the Spaniard to 17th.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone here.