Sainz hits out at “very dangerous” Grosjean after F1 British GP

Carlos Sainz has criticised Romain Grosjean’s aggressive defensive manoeuvres following the pair’s battle at the British Grand Prix.

Haas opted not to pit Grosjean under the second Safety Car, meaning the Frenchman was propelled up the order into fifth place.

Grosjean defended his hardest against Sainz and was handed a black-and-white flag from the stewards for dangerous driving as he was deemed to have moved under braking.

“A lot of attack in the first few laps, during the Safety Car period, and having to go through a very dangerous Romain Grosjean.”

Sainz's race ended outside of the points after he - like the Mercedes duo - suffered a tyre failure in the closing laps.

“[I did] a lot of management in that middle part of the race. We knew it was going to be tight on the tyres. So it was proved that it was tight when I obviously had the puncture.

“In general I guess luck hasn’t been with me during these first three or four races. Today we lost a lot of points so I’m disappointed. But at the same time everything was done correctly up until the two laps to the end so I cannot be too hard on the team or myself.”

Grosjean picked up an official warning after the race for his aggressive defensive moves against Daniel Ricciardo.

The stewards’ statement said: “Moving under braking when another car is approaching has been identified by the drivers as a very dangerous manoeuvre.

“Grosjean explained that in both cases his moves were before the braking zone, although in the second case, it was closer,” the stewards added.

“When it was put to the drivers that these were late moves in relation to the approaching car, or ‘movement in reaction’, and also potentially dangerous, they agreed on this as a general principle. Ricciardo agreed that this situation, while close, was manageable by him as the following driver.

“The stewards issued a warning, with the admonition that late movement in reaction to drivers following is also considered potentially dangerous and will be scrutinised by the stewards.”