Verstappen Upset about Penalty for Raikkonen Incident

Max Verstappen says his penalty for colliding with Kimi Raikkonen in the Japanese Grand Prix was a consequence of him trying not to cut the corner.

However the Ferrari driver accused him of deliberately colliding with his car in the incident at the chicane.

Verstappen was under pressure from Raikkonen when he ran wide at the corner. As he rejoined the track the pair made contact, and the stewards held the Red Bull driver responsible, penalising him five seconds.

“If I get five-second penalty for that then next time I’ll just cut the track and do like Valtteri [Bottas],” said Verstappen, who spent the latter stages of the race trying to pass the Mercedes.

“I was just trying my very best to do the corner and not make it look like ‘OK I lock up. I’ll just lot the corner’. I know what to do next time.”

Raikkonen said Verstappen hit him deliberately, damaging his car. “Obviously he ran wide and went off the track,” said the Ferrari driver.

“I just went on the outside and the next corner leaving him a space on the inside. But he obviously knew that I’m there so he just drove into me and pushed me off the track. I had quite big damage so obviously it was far from ideal.”

Verstappen tangled with the other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel later in the race. Vettel also accused Verstappen of making contact with him, but the Red Bull driver said Vettel’s move was unlikely to work.

“With Seb it’s just not a corner where you van overtake. For me it was a bit similar to China this year where I made the mistake because I was a lot faster and he could easily have overtaken me the next lap. I think even the most experienced drivers make mistakes.

“We both already got penalised with damage. Looking back I think it was a similar scenario to China, and I got a penalty there, but at the end of the day it is like it is and it’s just not nice that it happened.”