Carlos Sainz has revealed that he had a burst of road rage while caught up behind the Williams of Nicholas Latifi in Monaco.
Sainz started the race second behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in changing conditions in Monte Carlo, and went long on Wets until it was time to switch over to Slicks.
Ferrari had made a mistake with Leclerc, bringing him too late for Inters, allowing Sergio Perez an undercut, which helped him clear the Monegasque.
READ: Ricciardo flips off ‘fan’ after Monaco Grand Prix
The 24-year-old was then brought in behind Sainz, costing him time and ultimately third place to Max Verstappen in the other Red Bull.
Ferrari’s hopes of winning the race would then rest on Sainz’s shoulders, but he was passed by the lapped Williams of Nicholas Latifi as they headed up Beau Rivage, and the Williams did not move out of the way until after they had exited Portier.
Perez was then able to pit and re-join ahead of the Spaniard, who asserted after proceedings that he had lost the race win as a result of Latifi’s actions.
Understandably then, Sainz was rather annoyed at the Canadian for potentially costing him his first-ever win in Formula 1.
“You can understand the frustration and the feeling that I went through there because I knew my race was all about that out-lap,” he said.
“As soon as I exited the pits, I was wheel-spinning on the wet patch and he [Latifi] just managed to sneak ahead of me when, personally, knowing I was the leader of the race at that time, he could have perfectly stayed behind me instead of overtaking.
“But I have to stay to the right of the yellow line like some others struggled to do.”
The 27-year-old then explained how he ended up behind Latifi, and why he lost so much time as a result.
“He overtook me going up [the hill] because I had to stay right on the wet patch of the yellow line,” explained Sainz.
“From there onwards, I had to follow him through turn three, turn four, turn five, turn six, turn seven, turn eight. At the exit of turn eight, he got out of the way in the tunnel.
“But at that time, I had already lost the warm-up of the tyre and the time to make the difference on the slicks.
“I believe the slicks at that point were already as quick as the inter, for sure not slower than the inter.
“Because I was stuck behind the slowest car on the grid at that time, it cost me the opportunity to stay ahead of Checo at the pit stops.
READ: Hamilton beat Verstappen to the 2021 F1 championship, according to Puma
“You can imagine my frustration. You can imagine my shouting on the radio to get him out of the way but for some reason, it took longer than it should.”
Perez’s eventual victory in the Principality means that he, Leclerc and Verstappen have all won races this year, while Sainz continues to go in search of his first grand prix triumph.