Ferrari gun Carlos Sainz fumed at Oscar Piastri during a thrilling battle which eventually ended in contact that ruined the Aussie ace’s Miami Grand Prix.
Sainz and Piastri were battling for fourth position into turn 11 on lap 34 when Piastri looked to have pushed the Ferrari off the track to keep the position.
Sainz then took to team radio to plead with race stewards to order Piastri to give the place back.
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“Just tell him to give me the position and he doesn’t get a penalty,” Sainz said over the team radio. “Tell McLaren to be telling him, because they need to be telling him.”
The stewards decided to take no action.
Then on lap 39, Sainz attempted a bold move down the inside at the turn 17 hairpin, but lost control of the rear of the car under brakes and hit Piastri’s front wing.
The damage forced the Aussie to pit a lap later, which sent him plummeting down the order. Piastri set the fastest lap of the race on his way to an eventual 13th place finish. He also engaged in a brief battle with Daniel Ricciardo.
After the race, Sainz said the stewards’ decision not to penalise Piastri for the first move forced his hand.
“He clearly pushed us off track and cost us time,” he said.
“The stewards were not being very aggressive today with penalties, so I had to be aggressive too. I sent it and I finished P4.
“We had contact (with Oscar) twice today – once because his late braking pushed me off the track and then me with my late braking running a bit out of line and … and losing the rear a bit.”
Sainz said the contact damaged his car as well, although given his pace at the end, it was minimal.
The Spaniard was eventually handed a five-second time penalty for the clash, which dropped him from fourth to fifth, and elevated Sergio Perez.
The race was eventually won by Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris – his maiden F1 victory.
Piastri was on for a stunning result himself, before the Sainz collision.
Starting sixth, Piastri was in third by the end of the first lap, and then climbed to second with a move on Charles Leclerc.
A virtual safety car to collect a bollard deposited onto the circuit by Verstappen, and then the full safety car for a crash between home-town hero Logan Sargeant and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen compromised his strategy and dropped him to fourth.
He and Ricciardo were involved in a thrilling battle for 16th place in the closing laps.
The pair ran side-by-side for several corners, prompting an intervention from Piastri’s race engineer, who instructed him not to do anything rash that could bring out a safety car and potentially ruin his teammate’s victory.
The F1 season continues with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Imola track on May 19, only a fortnight after the 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s death at the same venue.