Carlos Sainz, just hours after securing a podium finish at the 2023 Italian Grand Prix, was the victim of a robbery around the streets of Milan in Sunday night.
Sainz took pole for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday, but on Sunday, he could not fend off the attack of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the superior Red Bull RB19, and had to settle for third place after also managing to keep his Charles Leclerc at bay, the Monegasque launching an attack on his teammate in the final part of the race.
It was not a win, but a consolation prize for the Tifosi who got the chance to celebrate a Ferrari driver on the podium at Monza.
But Sainz’s Sunday took an unexpected turn following the race, as the Spanish driver was reportedly robbed of his watch outside his hotel in Milan.
A report in The Express, claimed that the thieves attacked Sainz just as he was exiting his Armani Hotel, and took his watch reportedly worth over $-600,000.
However, passers-by chased the thieves and stopped them, retrieving the watch and handing over the culprits to the police, according to the report.
Sainz was reportedly unharmed in the incident, but it is not the first time a Ferrari driver was robbed around the streets of Italy, as Leclerc also had his exclusive Richard Mille timepiece stolen off his wrist in the Italian seaside resort of Viareggio back in 2022.
A year after the incident, four people were arrested over Leclerc’s incident and the watch was returned to the Monegasque.
Check out the below video that shows Sainz speaking the the police after his Sunday night incident.
NEW: Here’s an amateur video of Carlos Sainz with the police after the watch theft#ItalianGP #F1
— FormulaNerds 🤓🏁 (@Formula_Nerds) September 3, 2023