MARINA BAY, Singapore -- Kimi Raikkonen was reluctant to apportion blame for the first corner accident that took him out of the Singapore Grand Prix, saying he did all he could to avoid a collision.
After making a good start from fourth on the grid, Raikkonen pulled alongside Max Verstappen and teammate Sebastian Vettel on the run down to Turn 1. Vettel, unaware of Raikkonen on the inside, squeezed Verstappen into his teammate, creating a three-way collision ahead of the first corner.
"I got hit," Raikkonen said when asked to explain what happened. "I made a good start and I got hit and obviously there was nothing I could do after that. That was the end of the race so now we see what happens.
"I don't know about Max, you have to ask him. It was one of those things and you pay a big price for it. But I don't think I could have done anything different from what I did to avoid it. It's a shame but that's it. I had a good first 100 metres but then the race ended there. We're out and it's far from ideal."
Asked who he thought was to blame, Raikkonen added: "Blame? Today the end result is the same whichever way you look at it. That's really the only thing that maters now and whatever comes after that it still doesn't make any difference.
"The fact is we cannot change it that we're no longer in the race -- that's really the bad part. The painful part for us is that both our cars were out of the race after the first few hundred metres -- it's far from what we would have hoped for.
"It was one of those things and it was obviously bad for our race. Far from ideal, but it is what it is. You probably saw it better than me, but we got hit and taken out; that was the end of our race. The are always different views from the people watching it, but I don't know. All I know is that I couldn't have done anything differently to avoid it."