Carlos Sainz fired back at Charles Leclerc about using the “radio” or “media” to complain after his team-mate let rip on his cooldown lap at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Leclerc was fuming at the end of Saturday night’s race having lost out on a podium finish when he crossed the line in fourth place, three seconds down on Sainz.

Neither Carlos Sainz nor Charles Leclerc were happy after Las Vegas

Although Leclerc got the jump on his team-mate on the opening lap, he destroyed his tyres trying to attack George Russell for the lead and had to pit earlier than planned.

As the race played out with all the drivers stopping for a second time given the high degradation, Leclerc emerged from the pits metres ahead of Sainz and was told his team-mate would “not overtake”. But overtake is exactly what Sainz did.

The Spaniard went on to finish third behind the Mercedes team-mates while Leclerc was fourth and launched into a f-bomb riddled rant.

But he wasn’t the only unhappy Ferrari driver, Sainz was not impressed with the Scuderia’s calls in his battle with Leclerc while he was also heard on the radio arguing over the timing of a pit stop.

“There was this situation where I had to let by Charles, I lost a lot of time there,” Sainz told Sky F1. “Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, and I’m not happy about that.

“But at the same time, I think Mercedes was just simply a quicker car today, and maybe probably, one way or another, they would have beaten us today. The podium was the maximum today.

“What I’m not happy about is obviously the execution of the race. I think we can do a lot better than that.”

Asked whether there needed to be a discussion with Leclerc and Ferrari, Sainz made it clear he feels Leclerc’s grievances should never have been aired in public to start with.

The three-time Grand Prix winner said: “I don’t like using the radio to complain or to do anything. I don’t like using the media to criticise or to demonstrate or to prove if I’m happy or not.

“I prefer to do that behind closed doors, because I never, there’s never good outcomes from these kind of comments on the media.

“But obviously, I’m the first one that I’m not happy, and I was the first one trying to get out of the way by pitting and getting out of the way. But the whole situation was a bit messy, and I’m the first one today is not happy, but this is what it is.”

F1 2024: Ferrari team-mate head-to-head

👉F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

👉F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

But despite his radio rant, Leclerc having let loose when he didn’t realise the radio was on, when he faced the media the 27-year-old did not want to go into details about what led to that.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I mean, every time there are these kind of frustrations, obviously there’s not the background for everybody and it’s there’s just no need for me to go into details of everything that’s discussed, so I won’t go further into that discussion.

“Frustrating, yes, however, it doesn’t change anything for the team. It’s a bit frustrating for the drivers. The second place is always nice, but at the end of the day, it’s okay.

“I think I did my part on the first stint obviously when I had the tyres that were completely gone, I didn’t want to fight at that point, so I let Carlos by and then, yeah, the rest is we’ll discuss it within the team, but I don’t want to go into details.”

Pressed on whether he felt Ferrari were favouring Sainz, he replied: “No, no, it’s not about favouring one or the other. It’s about things that we have been told and that from prespectively. But that’s all good.

“I’ve already said too much, so I don’t want to go into the details and whatsoever, but it’s just frustrating when it’s like this, and it’s been frustrating for me, but I can understand that nobody understand.”

Read next: Toto Wolff calls for car understanding after ‘crushed everyone’ Las Vegas victory verdict