“I respect him way more than ever for how he behaved himself”: Carlos Sainz praises Lewis Hamilton for how he carried himself after his heartbreaking loss to Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi

Carlos Sainz says he respects Lewis Hamilton ‘more than ever’ for accepting his heartbreaking loss to Max Verstappen with dignity. 

Hamilton suffered arguably the toughest loss of his career last year in Abu Dhabi. He came into the season finale level on points with Verstappen at the top of the standings. All he had to do was finish ahead of the Red Bull driver and he would be a eight time World Champion.

Hamilton dominated the whole race, until a late safety car changed everything. Race Director Michael Masi made the controversial call of asking lapped drivers to pass the SC before restarting the race on the final lap. This allowed Verstappen, who was on faster and fresher tyres to pass the Brit, and win his first World Title.

After the race, Hamilton didn’t show any immediate signs of anger or sadness. He put up a brave smile and congratulated Verstappen for putting up a brilliant fight.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz says that it made him respect the Mercedes driver even more. In a recent interview, he was asked how he would’ve felt if he lost out on a win in that fashion. “Very bad,” he answered.

“And I was surprised at how he avoided making a mess at the end of the race. Losing the title on the last lap like that is really hard to accept.”

Also read: Carlos Sainz claims he would have love to be a teammate of Michael Schumacher

Lewis Hamilton was really struggling on the podium, says Carlos Sainz

Sainz managed to get a third place finish in the finale in Abu Dhabi last December. As a result, he was a part of the podium ceremony that involved two other men with contrasting emotions.

The Ferrari driver went on to talk about how Hamilton felt during the podium celebrations. Watching Christian Horner and Verstappen jubilantly celebrate after he lost out on his eighth title must’ve been hard. And Sainz admits that it was.

“I respect him more than ever for the way he managed to behave,” he continued. “We exchanged a few words on the podium and he was really struggling.”

Speaking about the future, the 27-year old driver feels that FIA will work on improving their system. He believes that the key to moving forward is to make sure that the same mistakes aren’t repeated again.

“We must not repeat the same mistake. Every football match generates controversy. We need to prevent F1 from approaching that kind of tension. But I don’t think the situation is disastrous, I’m convinced that it is improving.”

Also read: Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s Abu Dhabi GP controversy continues as Martin Brundle talks about the ‘disturbing’ footage unearthed recently