Carlos Sainz questions Lewis Hamilton’s last-lap defence: ‘If you follow the rule book…’

Carlos Sainz was unimpressed with Lewis Hamilton’s aggressive defensive manoeuvre on the final lap of the F1 Miami Grand Prix.

At the end of the race, Hamilton struggled with his medium tyres, and he was under threat from Sainz heading into the last lap.

Sainz tried an ambitious lunge into the final braking zone at the end of the back straight at Turn 17.

Hamilton covered it off aggressively with a sharp turn-in into the left-hander, resulting in contact between the pair.

While the stewards noted the incident, both drivers avoided a penalty.

The stewards ruled: “Car 55 attempted an overtake on the inside of Car 44 into Turn 17 and both cars made contact at the apex.

“The Stewards determine that both drivers contributed to the incident as Car 55 did not clearly get in a position to have the right to the racing line according to the Driving Standards Guidelines and at the same time Car 44 turned into the corner earlier than usual and therefore impacted the driver of Car 55 in his overtaking attempt.

“No driver is deemed predominantly to blame for the collision and therefore no further action is taken.”

Giving his view on the battle with Hamilton, Sainz said after the race in Miami, where Crash.net were in the paddock: “No, I just, I think he obviously was doing the best he could to defend. I had a go into the last corner. He moved as soon as he saw me dive.

“And that created contact, which I think is quite typical, honestly. But obviously, if you follow exactly a rule book, he cannot move as much as he did, but on the last lap that’s how it goes.”

Sainz reveals Williams damage

Sainz enjoyed a strong start to the race in Miami, moving up to sixth after overtaking teammate Alex Albon.

However, the Spaniard dropped back as he struggled with pace.

He lost out to Charles Leclerc and Hamilton shortly after the Virtual Safety Car.

Sainz revealed that he was nursing damage from the start of the race.

“Well, first of all, due to some operational mistakes during the weekend, we were forced to start on a used tire from qualifying while everyone around me was on a new, so I knew it was already going to put us in the back foot, losing a couple of tenths per lap in the first in new versus used,” Sainz explained.

“And from there, obviously, I tried everything to hold on the first stint. I picked up damage at the start with Alex. Then he made a mistake. I managed to pass him, then they told us that we were going freeze positions.

“Then, I don’t know if he got the message or not, but, basically, he overtook me back. From there onwards, on that first stint, I just tried to do everything to stay in contact with that group, holding on Charles behind with a used tyre and damaged car.

“I think I was the first one of that pitted, the VSC came out, so it was a free stop for all of them, or kind of a short stop for all of them, versus me, which meant, obviously I got pressure from them after the VSC.

“Had a few nice battles with the Ferraris. But with damage in the car I couldn’t stay close to Sector One with all the downforce and I couldn’t get the better of them in the in the battles. But on the hard, the pace was decent, given the damage and how early I pitted. But just too many things going on today.”