Vettel blames Verstappen for turn one collision

2016 Belgian Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel says he feels that the blame for the first corner contact between him and team mate Kimi Raikkonen is on Max Verstappen.

After both Ferraris passed Verstappen on the run to La Source, the Red Bull driver attempted to pass Raikkonen on the inside, with the Ferrari driver having no room to avoid contact with his team mate on the outside.

The resulting spin forced Vettel to fight from the back over the course of the race, ultimately finishing sixth at the chequered flag.

“Obviously I had a brilliant start, I was P2, I had half a car ahead, so I dictate,” explained Vettel to reporters after the race.

“I could hardly see Kimi. He was in the blind spot and I don’t think what Max (Verstappen) was trying to do was going to work. Obviously he didn’t allow Kimi to move to the inside and allow both of us to clear turn one in a normal manner. Then we all touched and collided and that was obviously bad news for especially us two but, with hindsight, all of us.”

The race stewards did not deem the incident to be worthy of investigation and neither Verstappen nor Vettel was punished for the contact. Vettel believes that there are lesson for Verstappen to learn from the collision.

“I think we’ve seen in the last couple of years that if you try to dive down the really, really inside the track is falling off and you basically go straight,” Vettel says. “The cars ahead have priority – something that I think he needs to understand – and in that regard there was no way he could make the corner without contact.”

It was the second time this season that the two Ferraris had made contact during the first corner of a grand prix after an attempted pass by a Red Bull driver, after a move by Daniil Kvyat in China resulted in a similar collision. Vettel says he does not believe the Ferrari drivers need to change their approach to race starts.

“I don’t think we need to change what we’re doing,” says Vettel. “We respect each other.

“With hindsight, knowing now, it’s easy. I leave a little of room and I get away with it but Kimi probably doesn’t because Max was touching him anyway. So I think you can see there that that line just didn’t work today. But obviously it’s a shame when two cars of the same colour touch.”

2016 Belgian Grand Prix

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    Will Wood
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    83 comments on “Vettel blames Verstappen for turn one collision”

    1. What did i just read?? YOU WERE NEVER IN 2nd PLACE AFTER THE START…..you just cut into kimi on turn1.

      If anything you are as guilty as Max was.

      Try make your excuse more logical for christ sake…

      1. Well if you look at the replay Kimis left front hits Sebs right rear so…..

        1. Well as far as I know, the ‘vanish into thin air’ chassis upgrade hasn’t been invented yet so Kimi didn’t have any say in the matter.

          Clearly majority Vettel’s fault, he should acknowledge it like a TRUE champion would. These excuses are straight up pathetic!

          1. I still think that assessment requires it to be reasonable for Vettel to expect to be going three wide. Given Kimi was already quite far in the track, literally no one else took the line that Max did. It’s not normal to be there. Max was never, EVER going to be able to make the turn. Even without Vettel there he would have hit Kimi.

      2. Looks like Vettel was fed up with being behind his teammate in the standings, so he decided he would change that by whatever means needed. He succeeded.

    2. I agree. An overtake should not happen on a curb

      1. Yeah. Max had another overtake just after he was all over the curbs in the race as well. It’s allowed, but I personally don’t like it.

      2. It didn’t. VES only moved to the kurb when the other guys turned in.

        1. Raikkonen was committed to the apex and Verstappen still lunged. If he wasn’t trying to round La Source on the kerb then he must have been trying to drive into the pitwall…

    3. Rick (@wickedwicktheweird)
      28th August 2016, 16:35

      Vettel was the only one who was in a position to give more space, but chose not to. Vettel is as mich to blame as Max is.

      1. Rick (@wickedwicktheweird)
        28th August 2016, 16:41

        *much

      2. Vettel gave enough space for kimi, unfortunately he didn’t anticipate max’s dive bomb, which left no space for kimi to maneuver .

        1. There was never any “divebomb” however @illusive.

          In reality you can see in Vettel’s own comment that even he knew quite well, that it was his mistake – claiming it was his position to give room or not, he clearly thought he wouldn’t let Kimi by. And then he hit his teammate, who then swerved further towards Verstappen and they tangled too.

          Verstappen was least to blame, his only foult had been not getting away from the line very well.

          1. There was a clear dive bomb, you cant deny it, he trail braked and tried to pass Kimi at an impossible place, Vettel is not at fault.

            1. Rick (@wickedwicktheweird)
              28th August 2016, 20:26

              A divebomb is an outbraking manouvre from too far back, overshooting the apex and forcing another driver wide. That was not the case here, Max could easily hit the apex.

            2. To be fair, it was a 50/50 move by Ves into T1, it wasn’t that dangerous. That one is on Vettel IMO.

            3. @wickedwicktheweird Look at the race start. Look at Max’s line. You think he was going to make the corner on the line needed to avoid Kimi? F1 cars won’t do that.

            4. Rick (@wickedwicktheweird)
              29th August 2016, 9:22

              @mike, he wasn’t understeering or locking up. His car was turning in, he was even able to turn in even sharper when Kimi came closer. If Vettel wasn’t there they would have both made it through la source without any damage. If you look at the angle of the line that Vettel used to come across i think there would have been contact between him and Kimi even if Max wouldn’t have been there.

            5. @wickedwicktheweird He’d be forcing Kimi very wide. To be honest, I think he and Vettel both acted in a way that would likely cause a crash. If you cut in like Vettel did, or if you dive on the inside, you are inviting disaster. In fairness, you can see, no other driver took a line anything like either of them did.

        2. If you look at the replay they were pretty much at the same level when they entered the corner. Raikkonen was ahead of both actually.

        3. Vettel didn’t leave enough space on the inside, like he always does.

          Your shameless Vettel bias is showing again Keithy.

          1. “Keithy”

            I think anon should reassess this and apologize.

    4. F1 Technical ‏@f1technical now9 seconds ago
      Verstappen: “I’d rather drive the Ferrari’s off the road than to allow them to get past”. #areyoukidding? #F1 #BelgianGP

      1. This proves that he knows he won’t be penalized for pushing cars off the track so he keeps doing it.

      2. He wasn’t talking about the start. He said something along the lines of “They already ruined my start, so I’d rather drive them off the track than let them through”.

        I think Vettel is actually to blame for what happened at the start. http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2016/34/1472409281-a.png

        1. I think you are incorrect, and I think that image pretty much proves it.

          A. Vettel is ahead, but on the outside of the turn, Kimi is on the inside of the turn, slightly behind, coming from the inside, with no opportunity to cut hard enough to avoid a collision is one Max Verstappen.

          Max was the farthest back, came from a long way back, and had no way to make the turn and had clear visibility of both Ferraris. Vettel could not have seen Max, could not have reacted to Max, Kimi had no where to go, except to cut Max off and put him in to the wall. All max had to do was not take a turn that was obviously going to end up in a collision.

          He drove a lot like Rosberg did, running people off the track, running them wide, pretty bad race craft. You can’t drive like that unless you are the #1 of a well funded team, and thats a fact. He has no fear of losing his seat, even if RIC is clearly the better driver.

          1. *with one Max …

          2. Finally some one point out the real fact. Roule is if you ahead you have priority. In fact Kimi should leave more space on turn and go much wider.

    5. Mostly vettels fault but verstappen had little chance to make on the inside either only one not to blame is kimi

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        28th August 2016, 22:21

        I would blame (in descending order) to: Vettel, Verstappen, La Source Corner, Raikkonen

        1. this sums it up perfectly +1

        2. @coldfly

          Räikkönen blameless. Good start, reasonable line into La Source. Not expecting Max to try the oh-so-often-ill-fated L1T1 dive-bomb (or hoping he wouldn’t.)

    6. WeatherManNX01
      28th August 2016, 16:44

      I can’t decide just how much blame Verstappen should take. He was definitely being aggressive to make up his poor start, but I didn’t think him reckeless.

      “The cars ahead have priority.” Right, and right before the turn Kimi and Max were even, and Seb was far outside. Going into the turn, Kimi was somewhat ahead of Seb, but it seems that Seb was trying to make quick work of his teammate with a different line. With Seb coming through tight on his left and Max on his right, Kimi really had a place to go – Max into the wall or Kimi into Seb. It’s clear that Kimi hit Seb before any other impact. I think Seb wasn’t expecting Max to be there and thought Kimi could move over more.

      What really bugs me is this tendency of the drivers to whine and complain incessantly about every little impact – it’s never THEIR fault, it’s always the other person. Drivers want regs that let them push more and drive flat out…but the moment someone pushes, they whine about the result. If you want to push, then everyone is going to push, you have to accept that incidents will happen.

      1. WeatherManNX01
        28th August 2016, 16:47

        And as for Kimi’s run-in with Max at Les Combes, I think that’s on Max, as it seemed to me that he lost grip on the turn, running Kimi off. But that’s a racing incident to me.

        1. Vettel got a penalty in Sliverstone for that.

      2. Completely agree.

        Really can’t understand why Vettel keeps doing this to Raikkonen though. It’s not like Raikkonen ever mistreated him. It’s also not like they are both fighting for the WDC. They needed those points and he just blocks Raikkonen hard for no good reason.

        Don’t think Verstappen did anything wrong in turn 1. However, that defensive stunt on Kemmel and indeed the move going into les Combes should have gotten him penalised.

    7. Seriously?! Vettel is an utter idiot and needs to retire if this is really his point of view. I watched the replay almost 20 times from 5 different angles or so and Vettel made the first contact in that group of 3 (Vettel, Raikkonen, Verstappen). Vettel had the same lock on his steering wheel as Verstappen, whilst being on the outside and that caused him to run into Raikkonen, who did nothing wrong. Raikkonen then hit Verstappen’s front wing, but he couldn’t possibly have saved this from happening, it was all very close.

      To be fair: I do think this is a racing incident and the stewards were right to not force a penalty unto any of the three drivers. But if there would be someone to blame, it definitely is Vettel.

      Yes, I am a Verstappen fan, but I try not to keep an open mind about things and feel that he should’ve been penalised for blocking Raikkonen on his second overtake attempt after Eau Rouge. Raikkonen is right when he said he needed to brake and that can never be explained as a racing manouvre, that was just plain blocking for the sake of blocking. I do feel over half of the field are becoming too soft, like Vettel for instance, so a bit more risk in their manouvres is welcome, but Verstappen went way out of of line here.

      1. Vettel turned in when he sized up Kimi’s cars position, no way in hell would he have envisaged that max would be tucked in between Kimi and the wall with four wheels on the curb. Max is lucky he didn’t lose control and do a grosjean, if the pit straight was any longer it would have happened.

    8. Vettel and Niko suffer from experienced veteran syndrome, which predicates that rookies must bow before the greatness of their seniors. That is what is too blame for turn one mishap at Spa.
      Red Bull employs Daniel and Max exactly because they are hungry and relentless.
      Ferrari F 1 team does suffers from complacency from top to bottom.
      I say if Ferrari had Daniel and Max they would likely be ahead of Red Bull and not the other way around.

      1. What are you talking about? Vettel saw a race in Russia over because a Red Bull driver crashed into him, and if not for that and the engine explosion in Bahrein he would be infront of both Red Bull drivers in the championship.
        Now tell me, how much did you criticise vettel in 2009 and 2010 when he was young and made mistakes?

      2. Yes… I’m sure Red Bull are ver happy with Max going from p2 to p11 yesterday. That’s exactly what they employ him for.

        Vettel suffers from the syndrome where you believe that the driver behind you, the one who has the overview of the situation, won’t risk ruining his own race in t1 on the first lap for the sake of naking up one place.

    9. Regardless of what you think of the rest of Verstappen’s race, this is ridiculous. Verstappen saw a gap and went for it and would have made it. Eager perhaps but perfectly fine. Vettel was the one making the mistake. Blaming someone who’s already in the crosshairs today is just sad.

      1. It lines up perfectly with Vettels complaining this year. Last year I liked him, this year it’s all complaints and errors…

      2. Verstappen does have the right to go for the gap, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a smart move. There is a lot going on in the first corner, and these cars have big blind spots. Drivers ahead must make assumptions about what is going on behind them, and will drive according to what they believe the situation is. Going for a last second dive down the inside and trying to force a three-wide situation through the hairpin is always going to be very risky at the start of the race because the guy on the outside can’t see any of that happening.

        If Max were a little more calculating, he would have seen that he could file in behind Kimmy, come out of the corner in fourth and would have the rest of the race to mount an attack for a podium finish. Instead he had to visit the pits and effectively gave himself a 15 place penalty.

        I f you’re a Verstappen fan, and you’re touting his exciting aggressive style, then I think you should ask yourself, how well did that move work out for him? I don’t think he’s going to win many championships that way.

      3. What gap? An overtake should not take place on a curb.

    10. Wow, I can’t understand how this is Vettel’s fault. VES being there is totally not within his sight, it was at his blindspot. So he should have known from experience and whole lotta gut feeling that someone’s coming from the insight of Kimi and this was going to happen as a result? However VES, while seeing everything and making the move, is not accountable of predicting that the outcome would be such a total mess. As for RAI, he did everything he could, being sandwiched at turn 1 and tried not to have a crash with VES, and even crashed into his teammate first for Christ’s sake.

      I like the raw talent as much as the next guy, but this shouldn’t stop us from pointing out an amature move, so that he can learn from it. Driving off RAI and Perez later on in the race aside (on which occasions even he himself got out of track!), his defending move against Kimi on the straight is just wrong and it is sad to see that such a young talent is making this a habit, and not being adviced against such moves by those who should know better.

      1. > Wow, I can’t understand how this is Vettel’s fault. VES being there is totally not within his sight, it was at his blindspot.

        Maybe, but Raikkonen was right next to him and nevertheless he ran straight into him!

    11. Max’s first corner was never going to end well and Vettel was also to blame for a very stupid turn in. Vettel’s first corner ruined both Ferrari’s races. Max if he does not change his dangerous driving will cause a very deadly accident and should be seriously penalized for his “wait” to block moves. He is a great driver but must realize he will get passed, show respect to other drivers abilities. Max is the product of tracks with asphalt run off and cars that are super safe. He should be sat down and made to watch racing from the 50s to 70s were mistakes and overly reckless drivers paid the price. If he knew there was a very real chance of death or serious injury by his video game mentality this would stop.

    12. Jose antonio sanchez
      28th August 2016, 17:23

      Verstappen caused the incident in my view. Made a bad start and tried to fix it at the first corner. That caused an effect on three cars. His and the two ferraris.
      No sweat. This kind of things can happen. Max is still in the learning process.
      Next year this kind of mistakes will cost him the title that i think will be fighting against hamilton and ricciardo. So he better learn not to make them often.

    13. Simple racing incident for me. I’m always critical about Vettels performance in the traffic, but this time I would say the responsibility is shared between Vettel (51%) and Verstappen (49%), however, not penalizing seems to be fair, I’m just simply sorry about Räikkönen.
      Later during the race the defending movements of Verstappen were pretty much on the edge of fairness, if not beyond, but that’s another thing.
      However, it was very annoying to see that Vettel estabilished his overtakes by leaving the track with four wheels out of Eau Rouge, during which he clearly gained advantage, carrying more speed into the straight line.

      1. He is allowed to do that, all the others do the same.

    14. If anyone is at fault, it’s Vettel. He was on the outside and had plenty of space to work in, but chose to simply assume that a) he could just turn in towards the inside from a very wide line, b) that anyone already there would get out of his way and b) that anyone already there would have the space to get out of the way.

      A driver of his calibre really shouldn’t be making those kind of assumptions into La Source on the first lap…

      1. He didn’t make any assumptions, and he was correct in thinking that no one would try to commit the stupidity that Max did….he would NEVER make that turn without hitting someone.

        1. Rick (@wickedwicktheweird)
          28th August 2016, 21:26

          If you see the angle of the trajectory in which VET came across to Kimi there would have been contact between the Ferrari’s even if VES hadn’t been there. This could have been avoided if VET gave Kimi a little more space. Even VET said that he could have left a little more space. So how on earth can you argue that VET is not (partially) to blame for this?

        2. Verstappen had every right in the world to be where he was and to attempt the move he went for. On the approach to the corner (point of no return), they were three-abreast in a formation that could have made the corner. Then Vettel decided to try to fit three cars into 1.5 car widths…

      2. by that logic people who get hit from behind are at fault irrespective of how wreckless the car behind is driving.

        Max was the only driver who could have known what was happening with him and the cars in front. He made a stupid petulant move to try and push Kimi wide and take the turn, except his lack of experience and attitude ended up giving him nothing for that race, for which he richly deserved.

        Listening to people blame Vettel for not being omniscient is something I find quite disturbing. How Vettel was supposed to be responsible for someone diving up the inside, off the track to try and push someone wide, is beyond me.

        Max was the only one who could have avoided that accident, he was completely at fault for wrecking Ferrari’s and his own race. Please stop blaming Vettel, he can never be held accountable for someone driving behind him unless he makes a reckless move like Verstappen did to Kimi on the straight. Please get a grip.

    15. Now what did Bottas get his penalty in Bahrain for..

      1. For diveboming straight into the rear of Hamilton?

        Verstappen was almost fully alongside when they started to turn in. In fact they all where almost in line going into the turn. Vettel took a slightly wider line and therefore braked a bit later, but then he turned in and left no space whatsoever.

    16. I personally feel that the first corner collision was of Vettel’s own doing. He just didn’t leave enough room for the cars on the inside. A shame, as it ruined all of their races. I’m a big fan of Vettel but have been disappointed with his recent performances. Too many silly errors and underwhelming weekends.

    17. Vettel is right. Was Verstappen fault.

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        28th August 2016, 22:23

        I thought you’d blame Alonso!

      2. Arnoud van Houwelingen
        29th August 2016, 18:24

        yes sure .. everything is Verstappen’s fault .. if you have working eyes you definitely can see it’s Vettel who didn’t leave his own teammate space

    18. If VET had not arrived at the scene, both RAI and VES would have come out of turn 1 without touching (VES’s front wheels were spinning all the time, i.e. the car under full control), ergo it can’t be VES fault. If VES had not been there RAI would have used the space at the edge of the apex, and then VET would not have hit RAI. Ergo it isn’t VET’s fault…Unless You argue that VET was the only driver with free space to use, and IF he had chosen a wider line, we would have had a good fight between them for the podium. Maybe they could’ve challenged ROS. I’m sorry we got a messed up race instead, where HAM profited and reduced his points loss, but in my view it is neither VES, nor VET’s fault – racing incident.

      1. And I am pretty sure Verstappen would have driven with less anger and frustration too @palle. Agree with your view of the situation.

      2. Palle, So if anyone doesn’t brake at all, he has full car control and is therefore not to blame if he clips the backside of another car? Face it, Max had a bad start, and wanted to recover as soon as possible. Given the fact that he’s driving a bull, and the other cars were red, he only needs Horn(er)s instead of a front wing ;)
        Vettel could have left more space, but the car in front is the car in front, and Raikkonen could have passed too if VES didn’t try a suicide attack!
        I believe Max will get a few lessons within RBR about not throwing away everything in T1, if he doesn’t want to get the Kvyat treatment.

    19. VES was never going to make that corner without contact regardless of Vettle being there or not. Anyone who has been there or driven it will tell you it’s much tighter than the TV shows and steeper – Max put himself in stupid position – I don’t see it much different to Greg Johns move in the Lotus a few years ago. Then we had the Kemmel straight and Les Combes manoeuvres – it was out of order. Why he wasn’t penalised like others earlier in the season I have no idea. Just read Bernies book and I think I might have an idea why….

      A big crash will sort it out if the stewards don’t.

      1. Best comment yet. The only reason Max hasn’t caused a massive accident in F1 yet is solely down to the high skills and maturity of other drivers. But at this rate it’ll happen soon. Maybe then the stewards will act, but it’ll be too late for some unfortunate driver.

    20. Alexi (@scuderiafan85)
      28th August 2016, 21:04

      Verstappen is the cause by doing a very aggressive manuever that was very stupid and ruined his race…so I’d say that is very much his problem too.

      I guess by his comments he does not think about blind spots and such things. You can only defend so much and should know when to be smart and back out…look at this now, he got no points to help his team against Ferrari in the constructors battle. Stupid young ass

    21. Stewards rarely get it wrong, and in this case it they didn’t.

      Both Vet & Ves were pushing it leaving Kimi no where to go. This kind of action is expected in Turn 1 on Lap 1.

      1. Stewards rarely get it wrong, and in this case it they didn’t.

        Are you serious right now ?

        1. Yes, the stewards are similar to courts. They have access to a lot more information than the public and they make decisions based upon the information they are presented. While no court or Steward is perfect in general they get it right even when F1 Stewards use a soft hand on Rosberg. :)

          Ever read Joe Seward? Here was his take https://joesaward.wordpress.com

          At the first corner Sebastian Vettel made a fairly a wild move, slicing across when he had no real right to do so. The result was that he ran into his own team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who then hit Verstappen, who was on the inside and in the right place to make the corner his own.

          My View – racing incident at Turn 1 on Lap 1

          1. @blueruck What else do you expect from Jow “I hate Vettel” Saward?

    22. Max wasn’t without fault, but seriously what was Vettel thinking? Ruined his race and that of his team mate on the very first corner. He likes to call people out on their mistakes so the very least he should do is owning up to his own.

      1. @pmccarthy_is_a_legend

        Agree completely. Vettel was more at fault than Max for his move. Since when do you attempt an overtaking move on the outside of the first turn and almost try and pinch the apex with your turn in?? Do you magically expect the cars on the inside to have just vanished?? Vettel seemed more focus on squeezing his teammate out of position than anything else. Sure Max made a move that wouldn’t really stick either ways, but he would have avoided any contact with Kimi if it wasn’t for Vettel’s ridiculous turn in.

        Honestly, the biggest loser in the scenario was Kimi. He had the pace to challenge for the win today, but got screwed over by his own teammate.

      2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        29th August 2016, 10:46

        I’m actually now starting to think that Verstappen is mostly to blame. From the replays I have seen, Vettel probably could have got away with his moves if Verstappen hadn’t gone right on the inside. Raikonnen would have been able to take a tighter line and avoided hitting both Vettel as well as Verstappen. This sort of accident has happened before and Verstappen should know that cars take a very tight line round the first bend. Like other drivers have done in the past, he had time to back off as he could see Vettel was closing Raikonnen in. He shouldn’t have driven onto the curb like he did. IMO is was as bad or worse than what Bottas did on Hamilton in Bahrain. I still think Bottas was mainly to blame for that but he was very nearly along side Hamilton and Hamilton turned in much tighter than he needed to as he had nobody to his left and Bottas was on his right. With the accident Yesterday, I assume Vettel thought that only Raikkonnen was there so I now don’t really see much wrong with what he did as he wouldn’t have expected 2 drivers to be on the inside when he was already taking a tight line. He had already made it look like that was the line he was going to take, so as I said, I don’t think Verstappen should have taken that risk. Verstappen got nothing for that mistake or ANY others through out the whole race. I can’t understand how he got away with it. Bottas got a drive through and penalty points for his incident. Very inconsistent penalties.

        1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
          29th August 2016, 10:51

          Just t add that I think I would have been happy enough if they had both been just a racing incident as IMO I think that in both of the incidents, 2 drivers are at least partly to blame.

    23. I think Vettel’s move to push Kimi into Verstappen was calculate because the only way to keep Verstappen from passing Vettel in the drivers standing is to make sure Verstappen’s car got damaged so he would finish fifth or lower. Otherwise it was only a matter of time before Vettel would succumb to the Red Bull. Vettel knoew that Verstappen would be angry and then throw his race trying to catch back up; Vettel showed how rattled a driver can get, and continue to make mistakes, in Mexico a few years ago. So Vettel causes damage to VES, VES gets all hot and bothered and does not calm down so continues to suffer through out the race. Kimi was just an unlucky sandwich filling.

      1. Your tin hat is too tight.

    24. Kimi would have left room for Max, as Max was virtually right beside Kimi – except he couldn’t because Vettel cut them both off. If Max did not make that move, it looks like Vettel would have taken Kimi out anyway.

      Its pretty poor when Vettel says he could see them.

      I blame Vettel completely.

      1. Agreed, I think you should leave more space for a teammate . Maybe Vettel didn’t see Max, he surely saw Kimi.

        If Ferrari didn’t cry so much the last few races, i would feel more sorry for them. Although what Max did the second time on the straight is to dangerous. If that at turn 1 didn’t happen, Max wouldn’t be so late with chosing his track position. Don’t blame me for this but I think Kimi could’ve chosen his track position earlier aswell because Max may only defend his line once.

        Max could’ve backed out of turn 1 to stay out of trouble, but Kimi could’ve chosen his line earlier. (I know it’s a bit strange to say it but I just feel that way)

        I love racing because it just happens and everyone has a different opinion on it.

    25. Often one’s own words betray what people want to hide Such is the case with the tragedy waiting to happen named Max Verstappen. Jumping ahead to his Kemmel straight incident ( with Verstappen you need to name the incident because it seems that he has one or more than one each race) about which he said when asked why he deliberated hit Kimi at over 200 mph he ( Verstappen ) said he would drive them off the track before he let them pass ( “them” immediately referred to Ferrari but, appears to apply to everyone). If Verstappen had not admitted the above and thus that he cares nothing about the safety of other drivers and if he had not by a repeated pattern of illegal moves , like his double move in the braking zone at Hungary where he in violation of the conduct code (rule 27.6 if I recall) had not only blocked a perfectly legal passing attempt but also broke Kimi front wing ,established that he will not abide by the rules I might have said that the 1st turn incident was just that -a racing incident . When,however , the man who repeatedly beats his wife says her black eye was caused when she walked into a door-you tend not to believe him so I say that Verstappen charged into the turn knowing that he would not be able to execute it and did so with the attitude that the other car would move out of his way or he would hit themand he did this knowing that the stewards would never penalize him no matter how blatant his move .
      It clear to me that Verstappen is not a sportsman and is not a person of good character. whether his fathers raised him to think that he is special and that rules only apply to the “common” people and that it is OK to do whatever it takes to get ahead even if it means disregarding the code of driving and putting other at risk or Verstappen is just a terrible person at heart is something we’ll never know but,is of no moment. What is clear is that young Mr. Verstappen either is so ignorant and obtuse that he does not realize that what he does is both wrong and dangerous OR he has seized upon the fact that F1, being essentially a money grabbing enterprise rather than a sporting organization, will never sanction him because letting him break the rules and put drivers at risk is good for business. Iit is similar to the years where football player ( not soccer players) could “head-hunt” ruining careers and leaving men with brain damage and only after concussions were publicized was the league shamed into passing rules prohibiting head to head or above the neck strikes. Verstappen hides behind the stewards lack of action and that is like when smokers waited for the cigarette industry to publish a conclusion that smoking was bad for one’s health- such an admission was proper and needed but one could literally DIE waiting for it to happen.
      I hope that Seb and Kimi and everyone else not paid by Red Bull or in bed with Bernie get Verstappen to see that F1 and its stewards have there own agenda and driver safety is not high on their list and that real men and true champions have a conscience and follow it and that no matter what anyone has told you you are NOT above being responsible for your conduct and that in the end it is “just a race” and if the price of success is another persons ambulance ride the victory was at too high a price and if that victory was paid for with a body bag then a line was crossed which should never have even been approached . It is sad but,true that Mr. Verstappen has been repeatedly casual with other people’s lives and that when whomever told him that he is a “racing god” they did not mean that literally .

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