Carlos Sainz believes that Oscar Piastri’s overtake attempt on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix was “optimistic”.
Piastri looked to move ahead of Sainz on the run into the first corner, but was pinched against the apex by the Spaniard, who was also going side-by-side with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
Both Sainz and Piastri sustained damage that would result in retirement.
Piastri stated after the race that there was no one to blame for the collision – however Sainz suggested that the McLaren driver was too eager.
“I think I was on the attack with Lewis and pretty much had the move down into Turn 1, [I] made the apex cleanly,” he said.
“But unfortunately Oscar was trying to do a bit of an optimistic move on me.
“I think and a bit of a shame because when you review the past races here in Spa and you know what has been a typical Turn 1 incident, it’s exactly that.
“Everyone who tries the inside line in Turn 1 and tries to make it around there normally generates an incident or a crash and this time it was my turn to receive.”
Prior to the collision, Sainz locked up while entering the corner and moved to the inside in an attempt to pass Hamilton.
The Spaniard argued that he “didn’t go deep” and that he “made perfectly the apex and past Lewis, if you look at my onboard yes I do lock up but I don’t go deep into the corner.”
Despite suffering heavy damage, Ferrari kept Sainz on track for some time.
However, he only dropped down the order and was running well outside the points when Ferrari opted to retire his car.
“It was undrivable pretty much, but we kept it going,” Sainz said.
“We never give up, in case there’s a red flag, when the rain came and passed and there was no red flag we retired.”
