Verstappen owns up - apologizes to Ricciardo

Max Verstappen
©WRI2

Max Verstappen lost no time in owning up to his mistake at the start of the Hungarian GP which put out Daniel Ricciardo and likely cost himself a podium finish.

After losing out to his team mate on the exit of Turn 1, the pressing Dutchman tried to reclaim his due but rammed into the side of Ricciardo at Turn 2, putting the Aussie out of the race.

Verstappen's car emerged unscathed however and he raced on to a P5 finish despite suffering a 10-second time penalty for colliding with his team mate.

"It was of course not what you want," Verstappen said after the race.

"I think everything started in Turn 1. The start was actually quite good but I got squeezed wide by Bottas and lost quite a lot of speed.

"We were both fighting for position in Turn 2 so we braked quite deep into the corner. I tried to keep it to the inside but then I just got locking, locking, and then I unfortunately touched Daniel on the weakest point of the car, in the side.

"Of course I was trying to avoid Daniel but unfortunately that was not possible."

The teenager made it clear that he would apologize to his team mate, hoping his good relationship with Ricciardo would remain that way.

"It is never my intention to hit anyone, but especially not your teammate, and especially with the relationship I have with Daniel - it's always really good and we can always have a laugh," he said.

"This is not nice and I apologise to Daniel for that and also to the team because we could have scored some good points here. I'll speak with Daniel in private and we'll sort it out."

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