Carlos Sainz has "good memories" of his time with teammate Charles Leclerc, the Monegasque's 'fans' not so much.

In the aftermath of their Mexico City clash, Lewis Hamilton claimed that Leclerc races his own teammates harder than he races drivers from rival teams, citing Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz as examples.

Speaking in Brazil, the Spaniard defended his former teammate.

"Honestly, I have relatively good memories of my time with Charles and the fights we had," the Williams driver told reporters. "It is true that when you're fighting for wins, there's always more pressure, more things on the line, so you naturally become a bit more selfish than when you are fighting in the midfield for a P8 or a P9.

"It's more difficult to follow exactly the ideal situation that the team would like you to follow because there's a win on the line," he added. "There were wins on the line back then, but I think I always respected Charles. He always respected me. We never had contact or anything like this, just had strong fights.

"I think you remember Monza, Vegas," he continued. "There were plenty of hot moments during the year.

"I think what was more difficult was that the PR and the fan base were really ignited back then," said the Spaniard. "And it was very polarised between Charles and me. I remember suffering a bit from the very hardcore fans of Charles insulting me, or wishing me bad.

"Maybe some Italian media were also saying that I was not being enough of a number two when I needed to be, and vice versa when Charles had to do it.

"So it's more the pressure surrounding Ferrari that involves Ferrari than the actual issues that I had with Charles, which were always resolved that same night when we called each other with a cooler head, and we always managed to find the solution and the way forward."