Verstappen says "not clever" Vettel at fault in crash
Max Verstappen says Sebastian Vettel was the main driver at fault for the Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 start crash.
Sutton Images
Verstappen was pinched between the Ferraris of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen on the run to the first corner, causing all three cars to collide and resulting in a secondary incident that also collected Fernando Alonso.
While Vettel avoided that second impact at Turn 1, his car was damaged and he crashed out moments later from the lead of the race.
Vettel said he didn’t know what happened to cause the accident, but Verstappen felt the German was at fault.
When asked by TV crews who was to blame for the crash, Verstappen said: “Mainly Sebastian. He started squeezing me, maybe he didn’t see Kimi on the left.
“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? 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.”
Verstappen said he tried to back off and feels there was nothing he could have done differently to avoid the crash.
“I tried to back out of it because I could see it coming, but the rear tyres are wider than the front so I couldn’t back out of it anymore," he added.
“I was in the middle without 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, 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.”
Raikkonen added: “I don’t think I could have done anything to change the end result apart from doing a bad start and not being there.
“That’s not really my fault. Whatever the cause of the accident is, it doesn’t change the end result. There are always different views, but I don’t think I could have done anything different.”
The FIA said it will investigate the accident after the race.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
F1 2019 game to allow official driver transfers
Albon keeps Toro Rosso on top in morning of Day 4
Michael Schumacher's top 10 F1 victories
The contrasting fortunes of F1's big-name moves to Ferrari
The many surprise driver cameos of the 2023 NASCAR Cup season
Raikkonen enjoys "old-style" racing without F1 DRS in NASCAR
F1 Chinese GP: How to watch, ESPN Formula 1 TV times in USA
How Ferrari has kept itself in the F1 hunt despite no major upgrades
Is Ferrari's revolution closing the gap to Red Bull?
Blaney "guilty as charged" in run-in with Preece at Texas
IndyCar rolling out new version of aeroscreen for Long Beach
Why MotoGP’s COTA thriller was just what Liberty wanted to see
Why tough love has allowed Fourmaux to reach new WRC heights
What the Chinese GP's highlights reveal about its first F1 race for five years
The secrets of F1 turbocharging explained
Why Alpine’s rigorous training camp yields telling insights into its juniors
The ironic reason Newey thinks Red Bull hasn't been caught in F1 yet
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments