Though he kept it remarkably cool on the outside, Max Verstappen was under no illusions as to the cause of the crash that saw him fail to finish the opening lap of a race for the second time this year - though he effectively only completed one lap in Spain.

Asked in the aftermath of the accident which saw the Red Bull, both Ferraris and Fernando Alonso eliminated, who was to blame, the Dutch youngster was in no doubt. "Mainly Sebastian," he replied.

"He started squeezing me," he continued, "maybe he didn't see Kimi on the left, but that's not an excuse, if you're fighting for the world championship, you shouldn't take those risks to squeeze someone that much.

"What does he expect?" he exclaimed. "When you're fighting for a world championship, you shouldn't do that. It was not very clever, I don't think it was a racing incident. At the end of the day, they take, in total, three cars out.

"I tried to back out of it because I could see it coming," he said of the incident which saw him caught between the two Ferraris as they appeared to carry out a pincer movement, "but the rear tyres are wider than the front so I couldn't back out of it anymore. I was in the middle not doing anything wrong, I was just trying to have a clean start.

"I'm happy that not only I retired, but all three of us," he admitted, "so we all have a bit of pain. If I make a mistake myself and go off, that's a different story. I could see Kimi had a great start so I tried not to defend that as it's a long race but after 200 metres everything was done."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by yakker, 22/09/2017 15:19

"Pavlo, there is a simple saying in the racing world, "you cannot win the race in the first corner, but you can lose it". Vettel obviously forgot this to his cost."

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2. Posted by Pavlo, 19/09/2017 14:41

"By the way another person who could have done things differently is Kimi - he could have predicted that he is in the blind spot of Seb and left a bit more space for Max. Of course he didn't have to. Same way as Max was absolutely right to dive into the free spot in Belgium last year, but it was not worth doing. It's like on a regular road - I always try to get out of someone's blind spot, as it's better to avoid collision than to have someone to blame."

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3. Posted by Pavlo, 19/09/2017 14:36

"Dajomas, who said Max should have braked? Not at all, of course.
Regarding mistakes and penalties - I agree that penalties is inconsistent. But to be fair, Vettel was penalized in Baku, still may be penalized here (stewards were to decide after the race), Kimi got stop-n-go without any collision, Max was not penalized for changing the line on breaking in Monza... it's inconsistent in all directions. But you really say that Max caused a collision in Hungary "accidentally" and Seb did it "deliberately"?
I am not about penalties now, I just don't like when people make mistakes and don't admit them, but when someone hits them - immediately blame, suggesting others are unprofessional etc.

I just recommend people go and read what Lewis said before rating my posts as negative :)"

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4. Posted by Dajomas, 18/09/2017 21:01

"And finally to everybody saying Max should have braked: what do you expect from a driver on the front row, who has a better start than the driver in first? He did ease up! But if he hit the brakes he would have been rear ended! All the cars behind him are accelerating! There was just no where to go for him! (Kimi never should have made that stellar start! It was raining for crying out loud....... ;-p )"

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5. Posted by Dajomas, 18/09/2017 20:49

"Oh and hey, don't forget Sebs usual fingerpointing in the car. Very often incorrect as he is usually the culprit himself. (Remember Baku?)"

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6. Posted by Dajomas, 18/09/2017 20:47

"Pavlo, the big difference is that if Max makes a mistake, his head is chopped of (well, figurative at least) and yes, as a Dutchy and fan of Max and fan of Ferrari, although not so much the current duo, Max does make mistakes but de difference in penalties is really corrupt (10 second s&g for accidentally taking out his teammate against nothing for taking out 4 cars on purpose (yes I consider squeezing someone off the track as "on purpose")"

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7. Posted by Pavlo, 18/09/2017 17:22

"mickl, please just look at the start of the previous GP and look what Lewis did. Are you sure he saw there was no one in the blind spot?
I say that it's absolutely usual in F1 to squeeze other drivers as long as you keep them enough space, and had Kimi not been there, there would have been more than enough space for Max.
I agree that Seb could have predicted that someone may have started way better. What I don't like is Max blaming Seb like he never makes mistakes."

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8. Posted by mickl, 18/09/2017 16:29

"So Pavlo, you're saying long as you swerve in front of anyone, everyone else should give way for them to avoid you causing an accident. Vettel paniced and tried to block Max. The tone of his radio message straight after shows he was aware of what he had done otherwise we'd have had his usual *bleeping* indignation shouting."

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9. Posted by Pavlo, 18/09/2017 16:25

"VC10-1103: It's 7 (6 after Singapore) races till the end, Seb was just 3 points in front and Lewis has a very competitive car on the other tracks, so "just finishing ahead of Lewis" is easier said than done. It's too early to start avoiding risks "at any cost", and any single point is important now.
Look at the qualifying - did anyone say that Seb did too much risk, that he should have settled for 4th place? Of course it's easy to say after the crash, but it looked different before. Look at the previous races - Lewis and Seb were both squeezing others on the start and it ended fine. It is not considered risky if you are sure that there is no one there.
So both of them would have had less points already if they played it safer."

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10. Posted by VC10-1103, 18/09/2017 13:09

"Couldn't disagree more Pavlo. Seb should be playing the long game. He shouldn't be taking risks, he should just be concentrating on finishing ahead of Lewis in every race. In this case the odds were that he would have got past Max at point during the race. It didn't have to be at the first corner with it's inherent risks."

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11. Posted by Pavlo, 18/09/2017 11:11

"Max: "When you're fighting for a world championship, you shouldn't do that" - or quite opposite, to be fighting for the championship Vettel had to risk and protect his position. It's not the last race yet.
Max: "maybe he didn't see Kimi on the left, but that's not an excuse" - ok, then why Max (who even saw Kimi there without 2 wheels) didn't break and let Kimi fly by? The answer is simple - because sometimes you really don't see everything in your mirrors and don't expect anyone to be there."

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Verstappen: Vettel to blame

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