Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo has branded his team-mate Max Verstappen's move "amateur", insisting the Dutchman was desperate to make up for a bad start.
Verstappen looked to have made a good start on the outside of Turn 1, but lost out at as he had to slow to avoid contact with Valtteri Bottas ahead. Meanwhile Ricciardo, on the inside, got ahead of Verstappen and headed into Turn 2 ahead of his team-mate.
But the pair made contact when Verstappen carried too much speed into the corner in an attempt to get the position back, forcing Ricciardo to run wide with a rear-puncture. The Australian then span and retired with a radiator leak, forcing a Lap 1 safety car.
Ricciardo believes the move was motivated by Verstappen's desperation to be ahead of his team-mate.
"For sure it’s not on," he said. "It was amateur to say the least. It’s not like he was trying to pass – there was no room to pass, Valtteri was in front and I was on the outside so there was no room.
“I don’t think he likes when a team-mate gets in front. You’ve got the whole race to try and repair the mistake but the pass was never on. It wasn’t even a pass, it was a very poor mistake.
“The team will do their bit and I’ll do my bit. We’ll sort it out. I don’t think it’s trying too hard. There isn’t an excuse for it. He tried the outside at Turn One and all of a sudden what was a good start is a bad start. He sees me go past and thinks ‘I’ve got to fix this’ and then we crash."
Discussion about this post