Carlos Sainz claims Max Verstappen was lucky to have continued after their clash in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The McLaren's showed great race pace early on and that allowed the Spaniard to attack the Red Bull driver into Turn 4 using DRS with a bold move around the outside.

Always pushing the limits though, Verstappen stuck the inside and would jump into Sainz after hitting the kerb causing a puncture which dropped his former teammate down the order.

“Well, it’s racing, it’s incidents,” Carlos said in the paddock, appearing to suggest the stewards were right not to penalise Max.

“All I can say is that I started well, I did all I had to do and tried everything I had to try and I ended up worse off. It was my turn to get puncture thanks to how hard he hit me.

“The normal thing would have been that we both got a puncture and to be both out of the race. He was lucky to continue, but he hit me really hard and that was it.”

Former team mates come to blows 😬💥#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/QcWtSzqdlZ

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Offering a defence, Verstappen suggested he may have been in a blind-spot alongside the McLaren.

“He tried to go around the outside and braked late, I guess he didn’t see me,” he said.

“In these cars, you are blind to what is happening next to you. I braked late and saw him turn into the corner, so I had to take avoiding action. We clipped wheels and it was unfortunate.”

From that point, Verstappen tried to challenge Valtteri Bottas for P4, briefly undercutting the Mercedes at the second pit-stop.

However, the Silver Arrow was too strong with only Sebastian Vettel's spin promoting him up the order.

“I think we maximised the result today and it was another good points score,” he said.

“To finish fourth was not too bad as we struggled with pace and rear grip, especially with the high winds. I was sliding around a lot so it was not easy and I just had to manage it, but I don’t think we could have done a lot differently."

The final step on the podium was in view as Charles Leclerc lost five seconds per lap due to an engine problem only for a Safety Car to thwart that effort.

"It would have been down to luck as we didn’t have the true pace and we didn’t really deserve it," Verstappen commented.

“Anyway, it was more unfortunate for Charles, but at least he’s still on the podium and I’m not too disappointed with fourth.

“We still have a lot of things to learn about the car so we will go back to the factory, understand what happened here and continue to try and close the gap in China. This just wasn’t our weekend.”