Max Verstappen stands by his actions during the clash with Hamilton, maintaining his position and pointing fingers at his team for the outcome, even two hours post-race.
If you’re wondering what Max Verstappen had to say to the FIA stewards following his clash with Lewis Hamilton in Hungary, here is the defence he presented as he went to explain himself in an attempt to avoid a penalty that could drop him from 5th to 6th place.
“I attempted a manoeuvre that was very committed, but then, in the middle of the braking zone, when I was already engaged in the move, Lewis suddenly continued to turn right.”
“If I hadn’t turned while braking straight, I would have made contact with him. At one point, I naturally locked the brakes of the car because he kept turning right.”
“People have always made a lot of comments about what happened in Austria. It wasn’t correct, blah blah blah. But it’s about the initial movement and then you brake straight, you keep your steering wheel straight.”
“I felt it was not about the initial movement, but afterwards, during the braking zone, he continues to turn right. You can’t do that when someone is committed on the inside.”
“That’s why I locked the car because otherwise we would have collided anyway because he would have just turned towards me.”
“We’ll see. Ultimately, if we had adopted a better strategy, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“I don’t think it was a mistake. I opted for a committed move but I don’t think I braked too late. We’ll see what they decide!”
Verstappen was highly critical of his Red Bull team after the race and two hours post-race, he still hadn’t come to terms with it!
“Of course, I’m not happy. On a day when we’re already lacking pace compared to McLaren, one would hope we’d get the strategy right, which wasn’t the case today.”
“Being below average wasn’t ideal, but we can recover. We tried to extend a bit, but my pace wasn’t very good.”
“With the hard tyres, I tried to close in, but I got stuck behind Lewis for a long time and lost a lot of seconds.”
“I thought that in this middle stint, we were okay, not fantastic, but I thought we had a decent pace with the hard compound, but essentially, we couldn’t use it because I was stuck.”
“Then, they left me out to dry with the strategy, I’ll say it as it is, and I ended up in traffic with backmarkers. On a day when the car isn’t really the fastest, you need to try and capitalise on the undercuts.”
“On a track like this, where it’s very hot for the tyres, as soon as you’re behind cars, they overheat within two laps.”
“You can’t rely on a slight pace advantage. Maybe last year, when the car was much faster than everyone else, but in the position we’re in now, we can no longer do that. That’s why today was a difficult race for us.”
“It naturally frustrates me because I want things to be done better. I’m realistic. Today, we couldn’t have beaten the McLarens, but a third place was possible if we had been a bit more proactive.”
It’s worth noting that when his race engineer told him he also needed to go to the medical centre to be checked after the impact of the collision, Verstappen was also harsh towards the FIA: “Tell them to send the doctor to check if the stewards are okay instead!”
Does this set the stage for a second summons here or at Spa?
- You may also like>No Miracles for Williams F1 at Hungarian GP
- Following us on>Facebook and>Twitter
Max Verstappen Blames Team Defends Hamilton Move Max Verstappen Blames Team Defends Hamilton Move
