Sprint China, first skirmishes in Ferrari
After a start to the season in which Carlos Sainz was consistently faster than Charles Leclerc, the tension in the Ferrari garage risked rising, because no first driver is willing to finish behind a teammate with suitcases in hand. And judging from the Shanghai Sprint, the suspicions that the calm in Maranello was only apparent were very well founded: “He fights more with me than with others“, Leclerc vented after being sent to the door at turn 14, at a point in the race in which Sainz had the car damaged due to the contact with Fernando Alonso a few laps earlier, while the Monegasque had inertia on his side and he hoped to catch a breakaway Sergio Perez.
Sainz’s words
Leclerc was instead locked in battle with Sainz for a few meters, before surprising him in turn-1. The Spaniard thus defended himself from his teammate’s accusations: “In the fight with Charles I was messed up, with damage and worn tires. He says I was aggressive, but I have to see her again. If he says that it means that it was like that and I apologize. There were movements at the limit and I played the race with Fernando. If the episode with Alonso hadn’t happened, everything else wouldn’t have happened“, this is the comment of the Spaniard a Sky Sports F1.
“I think he made a good start. I gave my all to pass Max at the start, I knew if I passed it there would be an opportunity to win because I was on new tyre. But I destroyed the tires trying to overtake him and from then on I managed until the end“, he added.
“I had an opportunity to pass Alonso on the outside of number 7, but then he was very optimistic trying to overtake me on number 9, and it cost both him and me the race because he made a movement to the limit. I suffered damage, and from then on I was sliding everywhere with the tires“.
