During his home race in Barcelona, Carlos Sainz found himself in a tussle with Charles Leclerc. In the opening phase of the Spanish Grand Prix, he believed he could overtake his teammate at the end of the straight. After a bit of pushing and pulling, the Spaniard won the position, much to the chagrin of his teammate. However, Sainz is not taking Leclerc’s comments lightly.
A controversy stirred up for the Scuderia during the Spanish Grand Prix. The two Ferrari drivers touched each other in turn 1, before Sainz snatched the fifth place from his teammate. Leclerc eventually crossed the finish line in fifth place, but was nonetheless dissatisfied with Sainz’s move. “I understand this is his home race,” the Monegasque stated. “He probably wanted to pull off a stunt, but he took too much risk here.”
‘Doesn’t Know Why He’s Complaining’
Carlos Sainz claims he did nothing wrong. “For me, it was very clear,” he responded to the incident. “We had new softs on the car, the Mercedes were running on used tires. We just had to attack.” However, Sainz noticed that Leclerc made little effort to overtake. “I didn’t want to spend the whole race driving behind him,” said the Spaniard.
Once past Charles Leclerc, Sainz had to concede to the German cars. “I was close,” he assured. He doesn’t understand why he received criticism from his teammate afterwards. “I don’t know why he (Leclerc) is complaining again,” said Sainz. “He has nothing to worry about.”
On Lack of Speed
Regarding the lack of speed, Sainz was brief. “We expected to be closer, but McLaren and Red Bull are simply untouchable,” he sighed. “In addition, Mercedes has greatly improved on these types of circuits.” The three-time race winner believes the problems depend on the track. “I genuinely think that if we were to go to Monaco tomorrow, we would be fighting for the win again,” Sainz continued. “We just need to improve on circuits like Barcelona.”
