MUST-SEE: Bizarre end to testing as Sainz and Raikkonen tangle at Turn 10

Mar 14, 2021 6:08pm UTC

Cars rarely end up wheel to wheel in testing, with teams preferring to run in clean air to get the best idea of how their car is performing. But in the dying seconds of the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, Ferrari new boy Carlos Sainz and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen got very close indeed at Turn 10.

The incident unfolded as the Spaniard dived up the inside, with the duo seemingly making some contact before both running off the road into the dirt. Sainz then tailed Raikkonen closely for several corners before retreating to the pits.

"I don’t think we touched, I don’t know," said Raikkonen later. "I had zero idea that he was there and then I saw at the last minute and I pulled right, but I guess he was pissed off and tried to play games.

"But anyway, I doubt that we touched - I didn’t feel it anyway."

Sainz and Raikkonen ended the final day third and fourth on the timesheet respectively.

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