Towards the end of Q1 Alpine driver Pierre Gasly was one a flying lap when he encountered a nearly stationary Sainz at the final chicane, as the Spaniard was creating space for himself to embark on a final lap attempt.
The incident forced Gasly off onto the escape road, which meant that the Frenchman stayed 17th and was eliminated, rather than improving his lap time to book a comfortable spot into Q2.
A furious Gasly responded that Sainz should be banned for it at the time and afterwards continued to say the Ferrari man's driving was "unacceptable".
Sainz's defence was that he was impeded himself by AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda, who had overtaken him before the chicane and therefore forced the Ferrari man to start his flying lap later than planned.
After hearing from both drivers the FIA stewards have given Sainz a three-place grid drop for the grand prix, demoting him from eighth to 11th. It pushes Oscar Piastri up to eighth, Alex Albon into ninth and Sainz's team-mate Charles Leclerc into 10th.
Later on Saturday evening Tsunoda and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll were also put back three places for impeding offences in the same session.
Tsunoda went off the road in Turn 10 and instead of backing out of his flying lap, he returned to the racing line and hindered Haas' Nico Hulkenberg, who was also on a flyer behind him.
Stroll drew the ire of Esteban Ocon after impeding the Alpine driver into Turn 8, which will also cost the Canadian a three-place grid drop for his home race. Tsunoda was demoted from 16th to 19th, while Stroll dropped from 13th to 16th.
"It was very tight with the flag, the flag was about to fall. I got impeded seven times today," Sainz said.
"I’m not shouting on the radio in Turn 13. Other drivers chose to use the radio more than others.
"Some incidents are under investigation others are not it depends howe much you shout on the radio and how much you complain.
"The flag was about to fall and also it was a bit every man for himself and I had to go. If not I would have missed my qualifying lap also and I was getting impeded at the time too."
