Ricciardo slams “immature” Verstappen after first-lap clash

As the race got going, both Red Bulls had passed Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes at Turn 1, who got boxed in behind teammate Valtteri Bottas at the first corner.

But Verstappen – who himself had to check up to avoid running into the back of Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner while attacking Bottas – locked up at Turn 2 and whacked into Ricciardo’s left-hand sidepod.

“Someone hit me,” said Ricciardo on the radio. “Was that who I think it was? [bleep]ing sore loser.”

Verstappen was given a 10s time penalty at his pitstop for ‘causing a collision’.

“There was never a pass there,” Ricciardo told NBC. “It was just a mistake. There’s no way there was ever room, because Valtteri was covering the inside anyway.

"I couldn’t have done anything else. I was just on my line. Obviously he got the penalty and all that, and it’s obvious whose mistake it was, it doesn’t change my race.

“It was out of my hands, you’re never going to get that place back in Turn 2 the way it was. It’s just overambitious. That’s youth.”

When asked if it was inexperience of Verstappen’s part, he replied: “That sounds too nice. It’s not that, probably immaturity, that’s the one. Frustrating that it’s all over in two corners.

“I would've liked to have raced today, and that didn’t need to be done.”

Team will “sort it out”

When asked by Sky Sports F1 what the next steps will be to avoid this happening again in future, Ricciardo replied: “Obviously, the team will do their bit and I’ll do mine. Yeah, there shouldn’t be too much to say but sure we’ll sort it out. 

“He doesn’t like when a teammate gets in front of him. It was a very poor mistake. It wasn’t on and [it was] amateur to say the least.

“I honestly don’t think it’s trying too hard or an excuse for it. It’s like he tried T1 outside, it didn’t work and he had the line taken from him. What looks a good start is a bad start, I go past and it’s ‘oops, I’ve got to fix it.' ”

Additional reporting by Tom Errington