“I Was in Danger of Being Left Out”: Carlos Sainz Defends His Cheeky Move that left Charles Leclerc furious in Silverstone

Out of all the drivers in qualifying ahead of the British GP, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were arguably closest to each other. They were aiming for a high starting order for Ferrari, but the tensions between them rose when Sainz made a cheeky move on Leclerc to start a lap before he could. Leclerc wasn’t happy with it, but Sainz insists that he did what he had to do, to save his own session.

Sainz and Leclerc are both determined to be Ferrari’s main man. Although the tag of ‘number one’ driver rests firmly with Leclerc at the moment, Sainz tries his best to make life as difficult as possible for his Monegasque teammate. Nevertheless, their relationship off the track remains good, but it was severely tested today during qualifying in Silverstone.

As both drivers made their way to the starting line to begin their final qualifying lap, it was Leclerc who was ahead of Sainz. There was a lot of traffic around them too, and Sainz was getting impatient. So, the 28-year-old decided to go around the outside of his Ferrari partner, to begin his lap before him. This visibly upset Leclerc, who took to the team radio to show his anger.

Carlos Sainz responds to Charles Leclerc’s sarcastic comments

As soon as Sainz made the move on Leclerc, the latter took to his team radio to lash out at the Spaniard. He sarcastically mocked him by saying that it was a great overtake, which ended up allowing Sainz to get the better of him.

After the session, however, Sainz defended his action which left Leclerc frustrated. According to the Madrid-born driver, both of them were in danger of being eliminated. This was why he had to start his lap quicker than expected. The post-qualifying interview of Sainz was shared on Twitter by Ferrari News.

“They all started to overtake us,” said Sainz. “And I was in danger of being left out. I told myself I would either shoot, or we would both be eliminated.”

Sainz also admitted that Leclerc was the driver who was being prioritized this weekend. Last week in Spielberg, it was Sainz who was allowed to start his run ahead of the 25-year-old from Monaco.

Sainz and Leclerc make decent time despite an on-track altercation

At the moment, the altercation between Sainz and Leclerc may have seemed like a big deal. But both drivers downplayed its severity after they cooled down. Sainz calmly explained why he did what he did. Leclerc, meanwhile simply felt his message sounded more aggressive than it was meant to be.

In the end, Leclerc and Sainz brought in a decent performance, to finish P4 and P5 respectively. For them, McLaren’s boost in performance came out of the syllabus. The duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri shocked the world.

Norris will start right behind Max Verstappen in P2, ahead of his rookie teammate Oscar Piastri who starts third. This was McLaren’s best qualifying performance of the season, but Ferrari will gamble on their race pace tomorrow to have both Leclerc and Sainz finish ahead of the Woking-based duo.