F1
Nate Saunders, General Editor, F1 7y

Max Verstappen apologises to Daniel Ricciardo for Hungary clash

Formula 1

HUNGARORING -- Max Verstappen has taken full responsibility for his first-lap collision with Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo, one he does not think will ruin their previously good relationship.

Ricciardo was ahead of Verstappen on the outside of Turn 2 when the Dutch teenager ran deep and slammed into the side of the Australian's car. The damage forced Ricciardo into an immediate retirement, one he blamed on Verstappen's "amateur" driving coming into the corner.

Ricciardo also suggested Verstappen's overly aggressive lunge -- which earned the 19-year-old a 10-second time penalty -- was because he is a "sore loser" who dislikes being passed by teammates.

"Everything started in Turn 1 because the start was quite good but then I got a bit squeezed wide and I lost a bit of speed, we were both fighting for position in Turn 2 so we went quite deep but I locked the front and from there I was just a passenger," Verstappen said. "I tried to avoid Daniel of course but unfortunately it was not possible... it is never my intention to hit anyone, but especially not your team-mate and especially with the relationship with Daniel because it is very good and we can have a laugh, so this is not nice.

"I apologise to Daniel for that and the team because we could have scored good points here. I will talk to Daniel in private and sort it out."

Despite only qualifying both cars on the third row, Red Bull had been quietly confident of challenging for a least a podium position. Verstappen finished 13 seconds behind race winner Sebastian Vettel, suggesting he would have been in a good position without the penalty.

Team boss Christian Horner is convinced Red Bull would have had a healthy points haul without the incident.

Asked if Verstappen had cost the team a win, he said: ""We saw from the grid positions that we were in that overtaking was very difficult today. Certainly, the pace of the car in the race gave nothing away to either Ferrari or Mercedes. You could see after he served the penalty he was actually able to get back within 10 seconds of the leader.

"And was consistently the quickest car on the circuit. So frustrating that we only came away with 10 points when it should have been a lot more today."

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