"You open the radio you complain" - Carlos Sainz snaps back at George Russell for complaining on the radio during the race

Carlos Sainz has snapped back at George Russell for complaining while racing, alleging that he did it in order to gain an advantage.

The two drivers were embroiled in a battle for P4 on Sunday at the Mexican GP. Russell had medium tires while Sainz had hard tires on his car.

During the race, George Russell complained on the radio multiple times about Carlos Sainz moving up braking while trying to defend his position. The battle between the two drivers was intense, but the stewards opted not to intervene.

After a few laps, Russell's tires and brakes overheated, and as a result he ended up dropping behind the Spaniard.

At the end of the race, George Russell was also overtaken by Lando Norris in his McLaren as the Mercedes driver suffered from a drop in temperature.

Carlos Sainz on the other hand ended the race in P4, right behind the podium finishers. Talking to the media, including Sportskeeda, about Russell's complaints on the radio, the Ferrari driver said:

“I was moving once and right before braking which is what the rules allow. You cannot move under braking but you can move right before braking and that’s what I’m doing."

"I think it’s the same as always when you’re behind, you open the radio you complain, see if the guy in front gets a warning or a five-second penalty because it benefits you. But I think it’s the same, almost everyone does, George does it a lot.”

Carlos Sainz laments race pace deficit of Ferrari

Talking about the race where he started P2 but could only finish P4, the Spaniard lamented the car's lack of race pace.

“It’s been the same case the whole year," he said. "The whole year we can fight them in qualy, we can beat them in qualy, but then come the race… two or three-tenths, sometimes one, sometimes four-tenths of pace, sometimes six, it depends on the track. It’s s the main weakness of the car and where we are focusing for next year. I don’t think we struggled with tyre deg, we just struggled with race pace.”

Carlos Sainz was not the only one to suffer, as Charles Leclerc also dropped a couple of places from his pole position.

The race was still fairly positive for Ferrari overall. The team has now picked up a podium in each of the last two races.