Carlos Sainz extends olive branch to F1 rival with "not a lot of love lost" between them

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has hailed Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso after he finished ahead of him at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Sainz finished fifth in Baku, while Alonso ended up in fourth after dramatically overtaking his rival on lap 46. And Sainz could not help but praise Alonso after the race, admitting: "Fernando got me right, clean, and then defended in a great way."

His comments come after claims the pair had "fallen out", with veteran F1 journalist Peter Windsor stating there was "not a lot of love lost between them" following an incident at the Australian Grand Prix where the pair clashed and Alonso was spun out.

"As I understand it, Carlos and Fernando have fallen out recently and there's not a lot of love lost between them now," Windsor claimed. And before Alonso got the better of Sainz in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the two were involved in another clash in the sprint race.

Alonso was left furious with Sainz's attempts to prevent him from overtaking him and called for the FIA to investigate his actions. Speaking to Sky Sports after the sprint race, Alonso fumed: "Yeah, I passed Alex [Albon] and then Lewis [Hamilton] into Turn 1, and Carlos as well.

"But Carlos put me into the wall at the entry of Turn 2. So I had to lift off. If I didn't lift off, we would have both crashed. I hope the FIA will look at this now and maybe a top five is still possible.

Fernando Alonso pipped Sainz to fourth spot after dramatically overtaking him (Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)

"I think the rules are clear. If you are side by side, you cannot go to that side of the car, ease and squeeze him to the wall until he lifts off. So we don't need anything, we just need to police it properly."

However, Alonso was in a much better mood after securing fourth in the Grand Prix, stating: "I have to be happy with fourth position and our overall performance which was encouraging all race. Thankfully today the DRS seemed to work fine, and our tyre management was strong.

"I thought the tailwind was quite random and here in Baku you are always on the edge. We only have to wait a few days before we go racing again, so let's see what we can do next week in Miami!"