Charles Leclerc expects Ferrari will hold talks to clear the air between him and his team mate after they clashed during today’s sprint race.
He was forced wide by Carlos Sainz Jnr at the hairpin while the pair fought for position on lap 16.
“What the fuck?” Leclerc exclaimed on his radio afterwards. Once he took the chequered flag Leclerc told his team: “Let’s speak after. He’s fighting more me than the others.”
The pair have had close fights in the past, notably at Monza last year. Leclerc accepted his team mate’s driving was no tougher than his had been on previous occasions.
“To be honest I have crossed the line also myself in the past and when this happens, we normally have a discussion, we clear the air,” Leclerc told Sky. “We went through that in the past already and it went really well so I have no worries that it will be the case also this weekend. But today he went a bit over the limit.”
Leclerc said he was in a better position to attack than Sainz at that stage in the race and the incident potentially cost him a better finish.
“Contact between us two, being in a different race situation because I had saved quite a bit the tyres, I had good pace at the end, it’s a bit of a shame that we lost that gap to Perez and couldn’t go and take him. But it’s like this. P4, it could have been P3, one point. You can always do better.”
Sainz waved to his team mate as the pair drove back to the pits at the end of the race. He said afterwards he was prepared to apologise for the collision, which occured after he tangled with Fernando Alonso.
“I was sliding around with the damage in the car and dirt on my tyres and I was doing everything I could to defend and obviously sliding. I had a bit of a moment there with Charles, but 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 out there.”
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2024 Chinese Grand Prix
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