Carlos Sainz criticizes Lewis Hamilton's racing conduct during the F1 Miami GP

Carlos Sainz has criticized Lewis Hamilton for how he tried to defend his position during the F1 Miami GP. In the second stage of the race, Hamilton was on medium tires while Sainz was on hard tires. Because of the length of the stint and the multiple shuffling of positions with this teammate, the Ferrari driver was being caught by the Williams driver.

On the last lap of the race, Carlos Sainz was within the DRS zone of Lewis Hamilton. On the final straight just before the finishing line, the Spaniard lined up the British driver, and in what was a very late braking move, he lunged down the inside.

Since the move was a second too late, Lewis Hamilton had already committed to the corner and was lining up his exit. As a result, the two drivers made contact but would safely navigate their way to the finish line without any change in position. Carlos Sainz, however, was not impressed and complained straightaway.

After a steward's investigation, there was no action taken against Hamilton. Carlos Sainz, however, was not too happy with the incident, as he told the media, including Motorsport,

"He obviously tried everything to defend himself. I made an attempt in the last corner. But he only moved in when he saw me trying. That led to the collision, which is quite typical, to be honest. If you follow the rule book, he couldn’t have moved as much as he did, but that’s how things work on the last lap.”

Carlos Sainz looks back at his race

The Spaniard didn't have the best of races in Miami, as even though he started the race in P5, he ended the race in P9 while teammate Alex Albon jumped him in the race. Talking to the media, Carlos Sainz revealed that his car had picked up some damage at the start of the race, and the situation got compounded by his starting the race with a used set of mediums. He said via Motorsport,

“Well, due to some operational errors, we started the race on used tires while everyone else was on new ones, which was already a disadvantage for us, as I lost a few tenths of a second per lap.”

"I tried everything to hold on during the first stage, but I even got a little injured at the start when I was fighting with Alex. He made a mistake afterwards, I managed to overtake him, and then they said we were going to freeze positions. I don't know if he got that message or not, but then he overtook me,"

The Spaniard has been slowly getting the hang of the Williams now and will be hoping to gain an edge over Albon in the next few races.