Both Ferrari drivers were told to let each other past during the Las Vegas Grand Prix – and both were unhappy with how their team managed the situation.
Carlos Sainz Jnr took the chequered flag in third place ahead of Charles Leclerc. He fell behind his team mate on the first lap of the race but the pair swapped places three times over the course of the evening.
The first two swaps occured under instructions from the team. The third, which ultimately decided their finishing order, came after Sainz had been told to stay behind Leclerc. He passed his team mate anyway, leading an unimpressed Leclerc to tell his race engineer they should have issued Sainz’s instruction in Spanish.
Leclerc took second place off Sainz at the start and briefly tried to attack George Russell for the lead before encountering heavy graining on his tyres. His race engineer told him “Carlos can overtake this lap” and Sainz duly took second place off him.
By lap 26 Sainz was running third ahead of Leclerc, the pair coming under pressure from Lewis Hamilton behind. Ferrari told Sainz to let Leclerc by, but he was reluctant to do so as Hamilton was close behind. Sainz didn’t let Leclerc by at turn 14, said he would at turn five, didn’t do so there either, and finally did at turn 14 on the following lap.
Ferrari also called Sainz in to pit at the same time. They cancelled the call at the last second and Sainz rejoined the circuit, eventually pitting on the next lap.
Leclerc pitted three laps after Sainz, on the 32nd tour. Ferrari advised him his team mate had been told not to overtake, but Leclerc came out of the pits so close to the other car that Sainz easily passed him immediately in the DRS zone approaching turn five.
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That set their positions to the end of the race. But afterwards Sainz was unhappy about the amount of time they had lost through swapping places, and his aborted pit stop.
“We were ahead of Lewis before that pit stop and I had been already a couple of laps asking to pit,” he told Sky. “So it meant that I think we lost quite a lot of race time.
“At the same time there was this situation where I had to let by Charles. I lost a lot of time there, I’m not going to lie, and I’m not happy about that.”
However Sainz doubts perfect race management would have allowed them to beat Hamilton or George Russell. “Mercedes was simply the quicker car today…
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