Fernando Alonso and Isack Hadjar disagreed over their racing while battling for position at the Singapore Grand Prix, sith the former stating that the latter took an "unnecessary risk", and Hadjar calling Alonso "grumpy".
Both drivers were challenging for points-paying positions during the race, and stakes were high considering how close Aston Martin and Racing Bulls are in the Constructors' Championship (68 and 72 points respectively).
In the end it was only Alonso who finished inside the top ten, as he crossed the line in eighth place. This became P7 following Lewis Hamilton's five-second penalty for multiple track limits excursions.
But it wasn't plain-sailing for the veteran Spaniard, who was forced to scythe his way through the field after a disastrous 9.2-second pitstop.
Alonso spent a number of laps stuck behind a struggling Hadjar, who was nursing an engine issue, at around half-distance.
He eventually got past the Racing Bulls driver on lap 37, but was annoyed that the Frenchman didn't simply yield position with a compromised car.
"I think he had a little bit of an engine problem, from what I understood, on the straights – he was slow," he told reporters after the 62-lap event.
"Sometimes, some battles you need to know when it's better to fight, when it's not, because probably the final result of the race could be worse for both for sure – but for him in particular.
"So yeah, I think some unnecessary risk, but I understand that this is Singapore and you need to fight hard, and he did his best, but we lost time for sure."
When told that Alonso was unhappy with his aggressive defence of 13th, Hadjar responded cheekily.
He said: "I mean, I didn't push him off the track.
"I kept it clean. If he didn't enjoy that fight, then he's really grumpy and there's nothing I can do for him."
Having heard Hadjar's comments later on, Alonso played down the conflict.
He added: "Well, some movements at 300km/h are a little bit borderline in Singapore, but everyone races as they want and there was no contact, nothing like that, so everything is fine.
"They have a very fast car, they don't have many points, so it's more their problem," concluded the Spanish driver.
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