Charles Leclerc says Carlos Sainz was not following the technique given by Ferrari when attempting to “do one thing a bit spectacular” in overtaking his teammate early within the Spanish Grand Prix.
Sainz went spherical the skin of Leclerc into Flip 1 to take fifth place within the opening laps, squeezing the opposite Ferrari on the apex and inflicting gentle contact that noticed the Spaniard run extensive however retain the place. Leclerc says that went towards the plan for taking care of tires early within the race and he feels Sainz was attempting to make a press release in entrance of his dwelling crowd however shouldn’t have carried out so on his teammate.
“We had a transparent technique initially of the race with the staff to each save tires to assault late on,” Leclerc mentioned. “Nevertheless, Carlos on that lap didn’t do any saving in Flip 14 and naturally had a possibility to overhaul in Flip 1, which is a little bit of a disgrace as a result of we misplaced time between us. I broken my entrance wing due to Carlos making the flip, not seeing that I used to be on the within and that makes our race tougher. Nevertheless it wouldn’t have modified the tip outcome considerably.
“I didn’t perceive the purpose of doing that when it was clearly acknowledged earlier than the race that we needed to save on this a part of the race. It’s a bit pointless, however I additionally perceive that I assume it’s his dwelling race, and it’s additionally an necessary second of his profession, so I assume he needed to do one thing a bit spectacular, however I in all probability wasn’t the precise individual to try this with.”
The 2 drivers swapped positions in a while as Leclerc chased George Russell to the flag — ending 0.3s behind the Mercedes — however he was much less involved concerning the incident impacting his possibilities of ending greater than fifth.
“While you take a look at how shut we completed with George in entrance, there’s all the time issues we will do higher, however we simply didn’t have sufficient tempo to do something higher right this moment.”
Sainz additionally had one other incident that noticed him run barely extensive at Flip 1 as Lewis Hamilton overtook him on the within, and he was sad that the stewards allowed the transfer to face.
“I felt like he ran me off the monitor,” Sainz mentioned. “I used to be half a automotive size forward, and usually the rule this yr says that in case you’re forward across the outdoors, they should offer you house, in case you have half a automotive forward. That’s usually what the stewards have dominated this yr.
“So I used to be attempting to profit from that rule, as a result of that’s how they’ve dominated up till now. I’m not saying he was racing onerous or not onerous — simply attempting to use the rule that the stewards have utilized all season.”
