Hartley infuriated by teammate’s tactics

KIWI driver Brendon Hartley had a nasty spat with teammate Pierre Gasly during the Brazilian Grand Prix yesterday.

Following one of his best starts of the season, a points finish for Hartley looked promising and with the Renault of Carlos Sainz in his rearview mirror, Hartley asked Gasly to let him pass.

But after his Toro Rosso teammate repeatedly refused to comply, Hartley could not hold back his frustration.

‘‘I’m getting pretty close to Gasly, guys,’’ Hartley said over the team radio.

‘‘What’s going on, guys — I’m going to get caught by [Carlos] Sainz, if you don’t let me past Gasly.

‘‘Is he gonna let me by? What’s going on? He is holding me up so much.’’

Hartley’s engineer then suggested he get closer to Gasly after failing to pass at corner four but the 29yearold exploded.

‘‘Mate! I’m right up his arse,’’ he yelled.

‘‘I am not attacking him, because he is supposed to be letting me by, but then he doesn’t do it.’’

Eventually, Gasly allowed his Kiwi teammate to pass but Hartley was unable to clinch the final pointsscoring place behind Sergio Perez, of Force India.

Hartley has since apologised for his outburst expressing his frustration over the situation.

‘‘Sorry about the language on the radio, guys,’’ he said.

‘‘I wasn’t trying to race him, which is why I was getting so upset.

‘‘It’s annoying you don’t get to score points as a reward, but there weren’t any retirements at the front to capitalise on.

‘‘I felt this was one of the best performances of my F1 career but without the reward of points. The team will work hard over the next weeks to understand why we had such good race pace in Mexico, but struggled two weeks later here in Brazil.’’

After 20 races this year, Hartley has managed just four points to rank 19th on the ladder. His best finish has been a ninth placing. — NZME