Sebastian Vettel held no hard feelings against Max Verstappen after the pair collided during the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Dutchman was looking to capitalise on a decision by his Red Bull team to pit under the mid-race Safety Car, which put both he and teammate Daniel Ricciardo on new Soft tyres compared to their rivals on used Mediums.
While the Australian would take full advantage, producing a number of beautiful passes en route to a great win, Verstappen would have two incidents, first running off track after trying to pass Lewis Hamilton at Turn 7, then hitting the side of Vettel’s Ferrari causing both to spin after misjudging his braking into the Turn 14 hairpin.
“I could see he was struggling on the tyres so I tried to brake late into the corner,” the 20-year-old explained.
“I locked the rears a bit and I hit him, that was of course my fault.
“It is not what you want and it is easy to say after that I should have waited, probably would have been the best idea but yeah unfortunately it happened.”
The pair were seen talking after the race and it was later revealed Verstappen apologised to Vettel, who struggled to a lowly eighth place in the aftermath with worn tyres and a slightly damaged car.
“He came up straight after. He realised that he did a mistake,” said the four-time world champion.
“I said to him ‘look, the races are long and you threw your podium away’. He was lucky to continue, I was lucky to continue, but it was not necessary.
“I think he got it. He was quite composed and realised that he messed up.
“I appreciate the fact that he came to me straight away,” the Ferrari driver added.
“I told him that was the way to solve it, face to face and not through the media or blowing something up.”