20/04/2024
NEWS STORY
Charles Leclerc has criticised his teammate's somewhat robust defence of his position during today's Sprint.
In the immediate aftermath of Carlos Sainz' wheel-to-wheel battle with Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver was passed by Sergio Perez having incurred damage after clashing with the Aston Martin.
However, when teammate Leclerc sought to take advantage of Sainz' plight the Spaniard forced him wide at the hairpin, though the Monegasque was eventually able to get ahead.
Initially critical of Sainz, subsequently, when talking to the media, Leclerc had calmed down.
"To be honest, I have crossed the line also myself in the past," he said, when asked if the incident had caused friction between the pair, "and when this happens, we normally have a discussion.
"We clear the air which we've went through in the past already and it went really well," he added. "So I have no worries that it will be the case this weekend... but today, he went a bit over the limit.
"I mean, there was contact between us while being in a different race situation because I had saved quite a bit the tyres, I had a good pace at the end.
"It's a bit of a shame that we lost that spot to Perez and couldn't go and take him but it's like this. P4, it could have been P3. It's one point, you can always do better."
"I was pushing Max hard at the beginning because I knew if I was passing him I had a strong chance of winning the race," said Sainz. "That probably killed my tyres a bit and then I was managing them for the rest of the race until I got Fernando.
"I did a really good move around the outside of Turn 7, from then on he decided to be a bit of all or nothing into Turn 9 which cost us both the race. I think I picked up damage and a lot of dirt on my tyre from the optimistic move, I was doing everything I could to defend and sliding.
"I had a bit of a moment with Charles," he admitted. "I apologise if I did something over the limit but we were all racing really hard today, I was trying my best to keep it under control."
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