Sainz went against Ferrari team orders: 'I tried to explain that to them'

Carlos Sainz does not want to talk about Ferrari's team orders after his victory at the British Grand Prix. The Spaniard believes his team acted well, although he would not comment on what happened when the safety car was about to end.

Sainz was very happy after the British GP as the Spaniard won a F1 race for the first time in his career. However, it was not without a struggle. In a battle with Charles Leclerc he even had to pull over once and just before the restart behind the safety car, he was asked to keep ten car lengths away from his teammate.

"To be honest, I think the team managed the race well today. I have nothing to say about that. At one point we changed positions to minimise the risk of an undercut by Lewis (Hamilton). We executed that perfectly,'' the Ferrari driver said at the post-race press conference.

However, the most controversial moment came at the restart, when Ferrari asked Sainz to keep ten car lengths away from Charles Leclerc in order to protect him. ''I tried to explain to them that I probably had the fastest man today behind me. If I fell back ten metres and Lewis caught up with me, Charles would be caught too.''

Carlos' choice proved to be the right one. On new softs, he immediately passed Leclerc and pulled away from the rest. Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton may have had the pace to attack Sainz, but were held up too long in the battle with the Monegasque.