Carlos Sainz is happy that “nothing dirty” happened between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the Abu Dhabi GP.
Sainz joined Hamilton and Verstappen on the podium at Yas Marina. Unfortunately, his achievement was overshadowed by the ugly mess of a race in Abu Dhabi, which saw the race result affected significantly.
Even though Hamilton lost the title on the last lap to Verstappen, the pair raced hard and clean until the very end, to the delight of fans. Among them was Sainz, who was happy that “nothing dirty” happened between Hamilton and Verstappen.
“I actually believe that the championship had a good outcome in sight of all the possibilities that there were coming into this race,” he said, as quoted by formula1news.co.uk.
“I think, personal opinion, it was a great battle up front and they managed to keep it clean, no crashes, no contact. Just a good battle that this sport deserved for this last race.
“And the first thing I did was congratulate both Max and Lewis on the podium because I believe that whoever was winning this weekend was going to deserve it because they’ve both driven incredibly and they both would have deserved the title.
“For me, the important thing is that nothing dirty, or nothing strange happened on track today and they both kept it clean.”
Stranger things
“At the beginning I was told they were not going to be allowed to un-lap themselves, the people in front of me,” he continued.
“Then they decided to un-lap themselves and some people un-lapped themselves but there was still, I think it was an Aston Martin and a McLaren, (Daniel) Ricciardo, between the two leaders and myself.
“This I’ve never had before having to restart the race with these two guys in front of me, one fighting for a P3, so I do admit it was a strange one and maybe something to look at because it was very strange to see and it nearly cost me my podium, to be honest.”
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