Sauber F1 boss says Wehrlein not to blame for Spanish GP penalty

Wehrlein produced a stunning drive on a unique one-stop strategy to finish seventh on the road at Barcelona, having started the race on F1's soft tyre.

From 15th on the grid he was running seventh late on lap 33 when the virtual safety car was deployed following Stoffel Vandoorne's collision with Felipe Massa.

However Wehrlein was already in the final chicane when he received the call from Sauber to pit, failing to stay to the correct side of the pit entry bollard, and incurring a five-second time penalty.

That meant he lost seventh to Carlos Sainz Jr, but a late burst of speed helped ensure Wehrlein did not miss out on Sauber's first points of 2017 with a career-best eighth.

"It was an excellent drive," team boss Monisha Kaltenborn told Autosport.

"It's sad that the call was made so late to get him in that he got that penalty but it doesn't matter.

"He had a split second, the call just came a bit too late but he could still react.

"But we shouldn't be crying about what could have been - we're happy with what there is."

Explaining the late call, Sauber's head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar added: "It's a shame that Pascal got a penalty but we were thinking about pitting at that time.

"There was confusion between the virtual safety car and us pitting.

"When the virtual safety car [was called], we were just at the entry of the chicane so it was too late - that's why he missed it [the bollard]."

Wehrlein said it was imperative he pitted immediately on receiving the instruction to ensure the team's strategy paid off.

"I got the call when I was already there on the last corner but I knew that when they called me so late it was important to come in," he said.

"I missed the bollard but if I hadn't have stopped that lap everyone behind would have overtaken me, so this was my last chance to score points.

"I knew that something [a penalty] was coming."

Kaltenborn said Wehrlein's performance answered those who questioned his decision to miss the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix following a back injury.

"It's great for him because he was exposed to a lot of unfair criticism and definitely not professional criticism," she said.

"It's important for his confidence, because he is a talented driver - that's why we signed him.

"These results are good for his development.

"This performance answers his critics, I don't know what they would criticise now."