Charles Leclerc accused Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz of eager to do “one thing spectacular” for his Components 1 profession as the 2 got here to blows on the Spanish Grand Prix.
Sainz had a run on Leclerc on the finish of the second lap and put a transfer on him into Flip 1 across the exterior, as Leclerc sat on the inside kerb on the opening proper hander.
Leclerc’s entrance wing clipped Sainz’s rear proper wheel, and the Spaniard ended up taking to the escape highway throughout the opening two corners – which put him forward on the entry of Flip 3.
Aggrieved by this, Leclerc says that the contact made his personal race harder and advised that Sainz merely needed to impress at his house race and getting ready to crunch contract talks with different groups over his F1 future.
“We had a transparent technique firstly of the race with each to avoid wasting tyres to assault in a while,” Leclerc defined.
“Carlos did not do any saving in Flip 14 and naturally had a possibility to overhaul me 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 and never seeing I used to be inside and that made our race harder.
“I did not perceive the purpose of doing that when it was clearly said earlier than the race that we needed to save on this a part of the race.
“It’s kind of pointless, however I additionally perceive that it is his house race and it is also an essential 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.”
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Leclerc said that Ferrari “didn’t have sufficient tempo” towards the Mercedes duo to contend for a podium, a sentiment that Sainz agreed with following his house race.
Sainz in the end ended up diverging onto a special technique, progressing to a stint on the mediums after which ending on the laborious, however he reckoned that the undercut technique failed to supply a lot.
“[There was] no technique to struggle for that podium, however clearly the decision of stopping early and going to the undercut route and anyway a medium-hard at the moment did not repay,” Sainz mirrored.
“These tyres have been simply too gradual at the moment, and everybody else that went on the smooth, medium, smooth, have been clearly sooner. It simply did not repay.
“Within the race I believe I mirrored a bit what Russell did and I used to be a tenth or two slower. Charles mirrored what Hamilton did and was one or two tenths slower.
“After which clearly, Crimson Bull and McLaren are clear step forward. So yeah, not our greatest weekend.”
Extra reporting Jonathan Noble and Filip Cleeren