New Spanish GP paddock footage shows Charles Leclerc seek out Carlos Sainz

Charles Leclerc alongside Carlos Sainz in Barcelona.

Footage from parc fermé at the Spanish Grand Prix showed Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in conversation straightaway after their on-track contact early in the race.

Camera footage from an onboard has emerged on social media of the two Ferrari drivers talking as they put across their side of events on Sunday, with the two having spoken about each other after the race.

Charles Leclerc seeks out Carlos Sainz for post-Spain chat after in-race contact

Sainz went around the outside of his team-mate at Turn 1 but aborted the corner as the two appeared to make light contact, going around the bollard at Turn 2 and maintaining position to move ahead at that point – though no investigation took place by the stewards.

Leclerc eventually finished ahead of his Ferrari team-mate after moving onto soft tyres for his final stint while Sainz suffered a loss of pace on hard tyres, but the Monégasque driver explained that moment cost him.

“We discussed before the race that it was the part of the race where we had to both manage the tyres as much as possible. We know how much Turn 14 is important to do that, so I did,” he told Sky F1.

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“But apparently Carlos wasn’t in that last corner and took that opportunity to overtake, which is a shame, because it put us on the back foot and damaged my front wing for the rest of the race.”

Since then, footage has emerged on Reddit of Leclerc accosting Sainz for a talk in parc fermé before the team’s official debrief, where their on-track contact will likely have been a topic of conversation.

For his part, Sainz believed he had the right to maintain position given how much of his car was ahead of his team-mate’s.

“I think it’s too many times that he complains after a race about something,” he told Sky F1.

“I undercut Lewis, we nearly passed Russell at the pit stop so I think I was trying out there what I what I had to try as a driver, what is required [of] me as a driver and he elected to manage more – and in the end for him, it kind of paid because he beat me at the end on a soft-medium-soft.

“For me, I elected to be aggressive, soft-medium-hard and it didn’t pay off, and it’s what it is.”