Sainz rues 'costly' teammate battle as tensions simmer

Outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has admitted his battle with teammate Charles Leclerc in the opening corners of the Chinese Grand Prix cost both of them important ground.

Leclerc and Sainz lined up sixth and seventh on the grid ahead of Sunday’s race at the Shanghai International Circuit but both lost positions to Mercedes’ George Russell and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg in the race start.

In the first hairpin, Leclerc’s understeer pushed Sainz wide at turn two as the Monacan struggled to get his tyres up to temperature while keeping ahead of the Spaniard — allowing the rival drivers past.

The pair then scrapped to recover their positions with Russell proving the bigger hurdle of the two.

Leclerc did not get past Russell until lap nine, while Sainz was forced to wait for him to enter the pits before being released into clear air.

His edge was then short-lived as Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas’ engine blew triggering a mid-race safety car.

Leclerc finished the 56-lap race in fourth — ahead of his teammate in fifth.

Speaking afterwards, Sainz acknowledged that the positional battle had not helped either driver.

“It was a bit of a crazy race. What we did at the start cost both Charles and I one or two positions and that cost us a lot in the race,” he told Spanish broadcaster DAZN.

“Then we tried to follow the Mercedes (Russell), we tried to overtake him but he stopped and then we stopped, we put the hard tyres on very early.

“In the last stint, I had to go very long, but we still managed to hang on for fifth, which I think was the maximum we could do.”

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.

The Ferraris were expected to do well at the circuit but could not generate pace on the harder Pirelli compound.

Earlier in the race weekend, Leclerc declared that Sainz “went a bit over the limit” when defending his position to his teammate in the sprint race before stating that the incident had been resolved internally.

Leclerc eventually passed the Spaniard to finish a place ahead.

Addressing media in Shanghai, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur disagreed that the squabble cost the two cars a better finishing position.

“It’s not a good help to lose a position at the start. But, in the end, we were behind (Sergio) Perez and (Lando) Norris at the start and we finished behind them also at the end of the race,” he said.

“I think, if we lost something, it was in the last stint.

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, left, takes a selfie with teammate Charles Leclerc after winning the Australian Grand Prix.

“Carlos was a bit unlucky with the timing of the pitstop because he did either three or four laps before the virtual safety car and then the safety car, and he was a bit scared to do a very long stint with the last set of hards.

“He was a bit conservative at the beginning but he did very well to manage the long stint like this.

“If we missed something today, it was starting from too far away on the grid, and this is more yesterday than today. We were a bit less performing on the hard than on the medium — the medium was under control and I think that we were in a good position at the end of the medium stint. But we lost a bit of ground with the hard.”

As for the intra-team racing, Vasseur said he would broach the subject with his drivers.

Sainz will depart Ferrari at the end of the season after it was announced that he would be replaced by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at the Prancing Horse.