Sebastian Vettel has yet to apologise over the first-lap clash in the Singapore Grand Prix claims Max Verstappen.
Despite race stewards concluding ‘no driver was found to have been wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident’, the teenager is still shouldering the blame upon the four-time world champion for being too aggressive at the start of the race in such tricky conditions, especially with the championship at stake.
When asked by Motorsport.com if Vettel had apologised for the incident, Verstappen said: “No. He did say something like, ‘yes, in hindsight things could have been done differently’. But what’s done is done.”
“Vettel is fighting for the championship, so you don’t need to take so much risk if you know that Hamilton starts fifth. If this would have been with Hamilton then it would have been a completely different story.
“From his side, I don’t understand that something like this happens.”
Prior to the stewards making their decision, Ferrari sent out this tweet fully laying the blame at the Dutchman’s door, despite claims within the team this was not endorsed by the team’s communications department.
Twitter: VER took #Kimi7 out and then he went to #Seb5 #SingaporeGP (@ScuderiaFerrari)
Max’s father Jos firmly believes his son was not at fault for the crash, which meant the Red Bull driver has now finished only has 50% finishing rate so far this season.
“If you look at the images, Raikkonen comes to the right and steers in,” Verstappen Sr said. “But if you look at the footage more closely, you can also see that Vettel comes to the left, and Max is in between them.
“He can’t go the left and he can’t go to the right. You can hardly blame Max for any of this.”
