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F1 fans reacted to Charles Leclerc being pushed off the track during an intense wheel-to-wheel battle with his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz during the 2024 F1 Chinese GP sprint race.
In the latter stages of the first sprint race of the 2024 F1 season in China, Leclerc was chasing fourth-placed Sainz after both Ferraris overtook a struggling Fernando Alonso.
On lap 16, Leclerc had a much better run down the straight between turns 13 and 14. He caught up to Sainz and went for a move around the outside. However, the Spaniard defended hard and slightly pushed his teammate out of the track on turn 14.
Although the Monegasque eventually overtook Sainz at the start of lap 17, he was not happy with how hard his teammate defended against him. After the Chinese GP sprint race ended, Leclerc told the team that they had to talk about Sainz's maneuver after the race.
"Yeah, let‘s speak after. He is fighting more me than others!" Leclerc exclaimed.
Some fans were unimpressed and criticized Carlos Sainz's aggressive defense against Charles Leclerc. They blamed the Spaniard for not giving space to other drivers while defending.
"Idk why Sainz races Leclerc like this man," a fan wrote.
"That was complete rubbish from Carlos there," another added.
"That’s true. When Sainz is in perdition his only goal is to push his teammate out and doesn’t care about the others drivers anymore," one fan claimed.
On the other hand, some fans discussed how Sainz was pushing as hard as possible simply because he was getting replaced at Ferrari after 2024 with Lewis Hamilton.
"Sainz knows he’s leaving so he’ll go all out now!" one pointed out.
"Bruh, he's getting the boot next year, what more do you want?" another fan exclaimed.
"What they ganna do…fire him?" someone added.
Charles Leclerc feels he and Carlos Sainz can easily put the incident at the Chinese GP sprint race behind them
After the Chinese GP sprint race, Charles Leclerc gathered his thoughts and spoke about wheel-to-wheel racing with his teammate Carlos Sainz.
Leclerc told Sky Sports that he too had crossed the line in the past but was able to clear out the situation with Sainz fairly quickly. Hence, the Monegasque believes that he and Sainz can discuss and clear out the incident during the sprint race.
In conclusion, however, Leclerc felt that Sainz was over the limit.
“I think so but to be honest I have also crossed a line myself in the past and when this happens we normally have a discussion, we clear the air. We went through that in the past and it went really well so I have no worries that it will also be the case this weekend. But he went a bit over the limit,” Leclerc said (via Autosport).
Following the 2024 F1 Chinese GP sprint race, Charles Leclerc is in P3 with 64 points, and Carlos Sainz is in P4 with 59 points in the drivers' championship table.
