Sainz shrugs off Russell’s radio complaints: ‘He does it a lot’

After the red flag period, Sainz was forced to defend against Russell into Turn 1

Russell complained over team radio that Sainz had been ‘weaving’ while defending on the start-finish straight.

Sainz ultimately resisted Russell’s attacks, retaining fourth, while the Mercedes driver dropped to sixth after losing out to Lando Norris.

Speaking about the battle with Russell, Sainz said: “Well I was moving once and right before braking, which is what the rules allow.

“You cannot move on the braking but you can move right before braking and that's what I was doing. 

“When you're behind you open the radio, you complain about the guy in front and [hope] he gets a warning or a five-second penalty because it benefits you. 

“It's the same as always, everyone does it. George does it a lot.”

After qualifying on the front-row of the grid, Sainz immediately lost out to Max Verstappen and then Lewis Hamilton through the pit stop phase.

Given their race pace advantage, Sainz felt it was inevitable he would drop back anyway.

“Looking at the pace that Max and Lewis had, it was honestly a matter of time before they finished ahead or in front,” he added. 

“They simply are a lot quicker than us in race pace, we kind of expected going into the race that they have some extra pace in there and we had to manage a lot of temperatures. 

“I had a weird stint on Mediums and I struggled with that front tyre that was grained almost on the formation lap, so we will have to take a look at that. 

“Once we put the Hards on, I think we were just following the pace of the car.”