Max Verstappen was left baffled by Charles Leclerc after both drivers were taken out on the opening lap of the Sakhir Grand Prix.
The Dutchman and Sergio Perez were three-wide with Valtteri Bottas on the run to Turn 4, only for the Ferrari driver to career into the Racing Point and leave Verstappen nowhere to go but into the barrier.
Incredibly, Perez was able to continue and recovered from 18th to claim a remarkable victory after Mercedes’ capitulation, while for Verstappen, he was left to rue his fifth DNF of the year.
“The start wasn’t bad but of course Valtteri squeezed so I had to back out,” he explained.
“Basically from there onwards, it was all about just surviving between the cars, I don’t know why they were being so aggressive and so reckless.
“We were all out in the front and at the end of the day, three cars were a victim of that, two cars of course heavily. I don’t know why Charles especially dives down at Turn 4 like that, especially braking that late.
“Checo [Perez] cannot see what is happening and he basically just locked up his front and went in, and because of Checo spinning backwards I just tried to go around the outside not to damage my car but there’s nothing you can do there.”
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Leclerc was later given a three-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but while he accepted the blame, the Monegasque considered it more a misjudgement on his part.
“I was in fifth and I was side-by-side or just behind Max and tried to overtake him into Turn 4,” Leclerc explained.
“I had seen Checo but I expected him to go round the outside of Valtteri and stay there but I think he decided to come back to the inside and I was there and it was too late for me to slow down.
“I don’t think it’s a mistake from Checo, I am not putting the blame on Checo, if there is anyone to blame today it was me. But more than anything I think it was unfortunate rather than a blame.”
