Max Verstappen remains unhappy with Sebastian Vettel over the crash at the start of Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, revealing the Ferrari driver had not apologised.
There was disagreement between the Scuderia and Red Bull for what the stewards later deemed a racing incident with no-one at fault, with the Italian posting a rare evocative tweet claiming the Dutchman turned into Kimi Raikkonen.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner, however, claimed anyone blaming Max should “get their eyes tested” and the teen, who turns 20 before the next race in Malaysia, maintains the German is to blame.
“Vettel is fighting for the championship, so you don’t need to take so much risk if you know that Hamilton starts fifth,” he said. “If this would have been with Hamilton then it would have been a completely different story. From his [Vettel’s] side, I don’t understand that something like this happens.”
On whether the four-time world champion had accepted any responsibility, Verstappen added: “He did say something like, ‘yes, in hindsight things could have been done differently’. But what’s done is done.”
The 30-year-old, who’s driving standards was called into question post-Baku, stated he was unsighted and was unaware of teammate Kimi Raikkonen’s presence on the inside of the Red Bull driver.
His argument did receive some support from an unlikely source, however, in main title rival Lewis Hamilton, who would use Vettel’s retirement to extend his championship lead to 28 points.
“When you pull away [from pole] you can’t actually see the guy who’s in second place, they’re generally in your blind spot if they get as good a start as you,” the Mercedes man said. “It’s difficult to know where they are so your immediate thought is to cover your ground, get to the inside and cover and turn them so I assume that’s what he did.
“It’s difficult to know where they are so your immediate thought is to cover your ground, get to the inside and cover and turn them so I assume that’s what he did,” he continued referring to Sebastian moving to the left approaching Turn 1.
“At least, when you do that, then all of a sudden they appear in your mirror so you can understand where they are or in your peripheral view but sometimes you do it and you realise you’re ahead so you actually didn’t need to. I don’t if Sebastian felt that way or not.”
