Gutierrez says Steiner face-off just "a bit of passion"

Television cameras showed an angry Gutierrez being grabbed by the arm by an unimpressed-looking Steiner after the Mexican had thrown his gloves on the floor following another retirement.

But Gutierrez, who will leave the team at the end of the season, said he was not angry with anyone in particular, insisting there are no issues with Steiner.

"It was just the wrong timing, the wrong moment," Gutierrez told Motorsport.com. "I was not angry with anyone, I was angry at the situation. It's been like this very often in the season, every time I have an opportunity, something goes wrong.

"I'm not blaming anyone specifically. Gunther approached me at the wrong moment, and everything exploded! There was a bit of passion there.

"We laughed about it afterwards. It's important to make it clear that it was just the situation, the wrong moment. You can understand that sometimes the adrenaline is high."

The Mexican added he was frustrated after technical issues cost him a chance to score his first points of 2016 in his penultimate start with the team.

"It was fun on one side, because it was very nice to drive in these conditions," he said. "It was very tricky, but when we started racing we started to recover positions, we started to go forward with good pace, and a good opportunity to score points. And then I began to have this problem with the electronics.

"It was really painful, because being in that position, with an opportunity to score points, and being in a very good rhythm, and then another situation which is not in my hands.

"We had to stop, it was actually pretty dangerous to drive like that. It was going on power under braking, on and off like a switch."