'Upset' Verstappen takes aim at team-mate Sainz

Max Verstappen has taken aim at Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz for 'holding up a lot' as an occasionally fractious battle between the two Toro Rosso drivers resulted in radio outbursts and contact that led to a spin.

Starting from a career-best fifth place, Verstappen ran fourth in the early stages and was settled in fifth following the red flag restart, but a botched pit-stop would see him slip back down the order, behind his team-mate.

With that miscommunicated pit-stop occurring after Sainz's - much to Verstappen's anger on the radio -, his frustration threatened to boil over when he felt as though he was being held up by the Spaniard as he struggled to get past Jolyon Palmer for 10th.

Though Toro Rosso proposed a swap, Sainz got the better of the Renault and caught up with the battle for seventh, where Verstappen again felt blocked. In the end, the youngster made an error, clipping the back of his team-mate at the penultimate corner, enough to send himself into a spin.

With no chance to recover, Verstappen had to settle for tenth place at the chequered flag, a result he was evidently annoyed with.

"The start was good, first pit stop was good," he said. "From there we had a bit of a miscommunication for the second stop and then things got very difficult.

"I think you could hear how upset I was. It is a very disappointing race in general. If you see Grosjean finishing sixth with the Haas on their first race ... I think we could have done much better than that.

Asked whether about being stuck by Palmer, Verstappen was candid about Sainz in his response.

"Well, there was someone in between who was holding up a lot, so...."