(Motorsport-Total.com) – Carlos Sainz was anything but pleased with his duel with Max Verstappen at the Miami Grand Prix: “He pushed me off the track,” said the Williams driver during the race. “He thinks he can do whatever he wants because he’s racing in the midfield here!”
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After the race, the Spaniard’s thoughts were as follows: “Verstappen pulled off a crazy move in [Turn 17] and pushed me out.”
Furthermore, Sainz emphasized during the interview: “With all due respect, what he did in [Turn 17] was almost like a projectile.”
“He knows that when he’s racing in the midfield, we won’t fight him anyway. We have to let him through at some point, but what he did there was really on the edge.”
Frustration after mistake at the start?
When asked if Verstappen behaved differently because he was used to duels in the top group recently, Sainz’s answer was: “No, he was probably just frustrated after his spin and tried to get back to the front as quickly as possible.”
“That’s racing. I won’t criticize too much. I just felt at times that we were going to collide, and then he pushed me off the track. Because of that, I lost three positions, and that was frustrating.”
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Verstappen was also asked about the duel with Sainz in Turn 17 after the race: “I don’t know, it was like a jungle in the midfield, so I don’t know what to say,” the Red Bull driver explained laughing.
Nevertheless, Sainz can be happy about a points finish. In the end, the Spaniard finished ninth, followed by teammate Alexander Albon in tenth place.
Thus, for the first time this season, both Williams cars scored points. Verstappen finished fifth, which was unaffected by a five-second time penalty.
Verstappen and Sainz know each other not only from duels on the racetrack. After all, the two were teammates at Toro Rosso in 2015, now known as Racing Bulls. While the Dutchman was allowed to start for Red Bull shortly after his debut, the son of rally icon Carlos Sainz Senior went on to Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, and ultimately Williams.