Dutch teenager Max Verstappen said he had the support of Toro Rosso bosses after ignoring team orders to claim a stunning eighth place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday despite stalling at the start. After the race, Verstappen insisted his pace had not warranted the team order.

Explaining the situation, Tost said: “The team wanted to swap positions because we thought Carlos was faster with the new tires, but this was not the case, he could not catch up”. But then Carlos was too slow, he was too far behind and Max was right.

“Therefore, we calculated that Carlos could’ve had a better chance to attack Perez, but he didn’t close the gap to Max well enough to really demonstrate that he could do this, so there was no reason to end up swapping their positions”.

Sainz said he was under the impression he would have to give the position back to Verstappen were he unable to catch and pass Perez before the chequered flag.

Naturally, Sainz didn’t agree. “I asked for a try if I could overtake him, and if not in two laps I would let him by again”.

“I would have done it. I’m a fair man; I saw what Red Bull did in Monaco and said look this is the best thing you could ever do: play the team card, let the guy on the newer tyre – which was me – at least try”, Sainz said.

“After I was told the second time [to let Sainz by] I made it quite clear I didn’t want to do it, and at the end they told me it was the right decision”.

Vertsappen refused and led his Spanish team mate over the line to take the eight points and move on to 30 and 11th place in the drivers standings, 19 points ahead of Sainz. “The start was very important because I knew I had to get ahead of Fernando [Alonso] and I also jumped ahead of Romain [Grosjean]. “.

“Therefore we said no, it doesn’t make sense”.

“It was the call to “let Carlos come by”, I mean always I had a great pace – I was pulling away from everyone in the midfield”, Verstappen said.

The rookie was more coy on relations with Sainz, however, adding he did not think the Spaniard was angry with him.

Ted Kravitz brings you all the latest news following the Singapore Grand Prix.