F1 driver slams Carlos Sainz for 'mouthing off' as official FIA protest looms

Carlos Sainz has been accused of "mouthing off" by rival Liam Lawson. The Kiwi was taken aback by the Spaniard's criticism of him following their collision in last Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix and, in the few days since, has clearly continued to be irked by what the Williams driver said.

Their argument came as a result of one of the many on-track incidents that happened during the action-packed Zandvoort race. It happened after a safety car restart when Sainz tried to overtake Lawson around the outside of turn one.

However, they collided and both picked up punctures which required visits to the pit lane. It ruined both their chances of scoring points, though Sainz was the one who was penalised when the stewards found him to have been at fault for the contact.

The Spaniard was furious about it, both over the radio when told about his punishment and then afterwards when he took aim not only at the stewards, demanding an explanation for their verdict, but also at Lawson.

Regarding the Kiwi, Sainz said: "It's a corner that allows to go two cars to race each other without really having to have any unnecessary contact. But with Liam, it always seems to be very difficult to make that happen. He always seems to prefer to have a bit of contact and risk a DNF or a puncture like we did, than to actually accept having two cars side-by-side."

In response, Lawson questioned why Sainz had chosen to criticise him in the media rather than speaking to him directly. "I wish he'd just come and talk to me about it rather than telling everybody else," the Racing Bulls driver said.

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And on Thursday, ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, Lawson said he was still "surprised" by how critical Sainz had been of him when he was unaware that there was any issue between them.

He said at Monza: "On a restart we have cold tyres, hard tyres. We're all on new tyres after the safety car. It's a naturally difficult corner. We're all coming in there on lap one. He's the car going for the overtake around the outside, and he didn't get his axle where he needed to get it. And somehow I'm deemed as being aggressive? I don't really understand it.

"It ruined my race. We were in a position to potentially have two cars in the top five, but I didn't go on the radio and mouth off to everybody about it or to the media.

"So, yeah, it's his approach after that race but I don't know why he was so upset, honestly. If I was overtaking him, I would understand that he's more frustrated, but he was the car overtaking, and he got a penalty for it."

Meanwhile, Sainz remains furious with the stewards' decision to penalise him and said he is gathering the proof he needs for an official protest. "We are trying to see if we can come up with enough evidence and enough stuff to realise if we can change the outcome of the penalty," he said.

"Because I still firmly believe it was a very poor penalty that I received and a bad judgment, which can happen as long as you have the capacity to revisit it. And if there's been a misunderstanding or a lack of evidence or a lack of analysis, then there is still time to reanalyse it, to reopen it, and change it."