A frustrated Carlos Sainz accused Max Verstappen of thinking “he can do whatever he wants” in the “midfield” at the Miami Grand Prix.

Sainz was one of the drivers passed by a recovering Verstappen early in the Miami Grand Prix, and the Williams driver took to team radio to criticise the conduct of his former Toro Rosso teammate.

Carlos Sainz criticises Max Verstappen over Miami move

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Verstappen launched from the front row and challenged Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc for the lead into Turn 1.

But, getting on the kerb as Leclerc swooped around the outside, Verstappen spun his Red Bull RB22, necessitating a recovery mission.

It was a task which Verstappen handled with efficiency. He did, though, irk Carlos Sainz, the Williams driver one of those who Verstappen passed in his comeback drive.

Unhappy with Verstappen’s move up the inside, Sainz jumped on team radio to criticise the four-time World Champion.

“He pushed me off,” Sainz claimed.

“He thinks he can do whatever he wants just because he’s racing the midfield.”

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Ultimately, Sainz crossed the line P9, at the head of a Williams double points finish.

In what has been a challenging start to F1 2026 for the Grove squad, Sainz called Miami a “very solid race for me”.

It is the first double points finish for Williams this season, the team one of many to bring an upgrade package to Miami.

“Great start in Lap 1, then unfortunate with a couple of moments there in Lap 1 that put me on the back foot,” Sainz continued.

“But then I managed to recover those positions and started recovering, settling into my pace. Showed an extremely good pace today, quicker than the midfield.

“Still a step behind the Alpine, but a much better, straightforward performance that puts us in a very solid position today.”

Sainz did though caution that there remains work to do for Williams.

“Still a difficult start,” said Sainz of Williams’ F1 2026 so far.

“I think P9, I’m fighting for the points half a second behind Alpine is not what the team wanted, what the team expected.

“So even though we’ve taken a massive step forward this weekend, it’s still not what we’re capable of doing, and we need to keep digging deep.

“We set ourselves higher expectations, and we want to live up to them, and we still have a good part of the year to recover it.

“But it just shows that when you do things well, and we all work well, we managed to bring a car here that allows the two drivers to score points, and we need to keep going in this direction, because I’m sure this team can recover from a bad moment.”

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