Their starting positions definitely influenced their race outcomes. Carlos got stuck behind Lando and Max fighting into turn 1 which is what happened to Charles in the sprint race. Charles was able to send it right down the inside to get into leading position.

Carlos said in the post interviews that after he couldn’t get past Max in the first few laps, Charles kept increasing the gap and he knew a win was going to be less possible for himself. (Good job by Ferrari to pit Carlos when they did to undercut Max) however I believe Carlos would have gotten past him eventually. Carlos was driving great all weekend and I’m sure he thought if a Ferrari were to win it would have been him.

I think Charles understood that Carlos was disappointed with the result so he didn’t want to overcrowd him with celebration considering it could have been him as the winner. And it’s completely understandable from both points of view. I completely understand why they both “acted” the way they did. And again, it’s not like they completely ignored each other, it just wasn’t as homo-erotic as we’re used to for a 1-2 like Australia or Bahrain.

Also, Charles did spray Carlos with champagne first on his way to spraying the engineer.

Personally, I think the people thinking Charles was being petty about the sprint race are exaggerating. The reports about him throwing his helmet outside of the FIA office was because Lando did not receive a penalty during the sprint.

I think Carlos and Charles will be FINE! They were sitting on each others laps during the drivers parade! Like they say all the time, they are extremely competitive with each other but they always get over it. I’m sure Carlos wants another win before he leaves Ferrari and Charles is now within striking distance of Lando in the drivers championship.

I don’t think this will be the last time we see this type of emotion/lack of emotion from them in the final few months. Remember that these are people dealing with real emotions and they’re allowed to have off days without being PR perfect!