Carlos Sainz has suggested that Oscar Piastri "could have been more careful" in trying to lap the Williams during their Hungarian GP collision.
On Lap 38 in Budapest, Sainz was duelling with Fernando Alonso as fifth-placed Piastri was attempting to maintain the race lead from team-mate Lando Norris, having just stopped with Norris staying out.
Piastri was on course to emerge just ahead of Norris, but at Turn 2, Sainz cut across Piastri's bow, forcing the McLaren to lose time as he regrouped, and then blocked the McLaren through Turn 5 before Piastri passed at Turns 6 and 7.
The Australian was then overcut by Norris, with the incident ultimately academic after Piastri retired with a gearbox failure 14 laps from the end.
Sainz put the root cause of the incident down as a blue flag system failure on the steering wheel, with the lights not displaying, with Piastri giving this short shrift, saying Sainz's conduct, for which he received a five-second time penalty, was "unacceptable" and that the Spanish racer should "look in the mirror."
Expressing his sorrow for what happened, Sainz felt that given the circumstances for Piastri, he could have treaded more carefully whilst lapping him and Alonso.
"To be honest, I'm really sorry for Oscar, but this time I think I have a pretty good excuse for what happened," Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.
"I don't know if he could also have been a bit more careful, given that he's the one fighting for podiums and positioning himself a bit more cautiously because of all the issues we were all having with the blue flags.
"I took the five-second penalty; I'm okay with it. I don't care when I go fighting for P18, but it's a racing incident. He probably understands what happened just by knowing what happened.
He didn't retire due to me, not my fault. So it was just a contact, and I'm glad it didn't disturb his race too much, but it is tough when we're having all these issues."
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