02/06/2025 10:10
Max Verstappen felt the contact he had with Charles Leclerc during
the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix would leave him with a
puncture. Reflecting on the "really odd" and "really weird"
incident, the Dutchman highlighted how the collision could have
been a "big one" after the Ferrari touched his Red Bull whilst
charging past at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya. At the safety
car restart, which came on lap 61 of the 66 lap race, the four-time
F1 drivers' champion, on hard tyres compared to the medium and soft
compounds every other driver was on, suffered a considerable snap
of oversteer coming out the final corner, causing him to lose
traction. It subsequently opened the door for Leclerc, on the
yellow-walled Pirellis, to overtake, which is when contact was
initiated. That came moments before George Russell pushed
Verstappen wide at Turn 1, which precipitated the events that
earned the Red Bull driver a 10-second time penalty, which dropped
him from fifth to P10 at the chequered flag. In the wake of the two
incidents, Verstappen jumped on team radio to complain about his
rivals, having fallen from a podium position. "Oh my! Mate, he just
rammed into me!," he exclaimed before clarifying: "Charles just
rammed into me on the straight." It saw the two drivers' hauled
before the FIA stewards, but it was determined neither was wholly
or predominantly to blame and, therefore, neither was punished -
unlike with the later clash with Russell. In the aftermath of the
ill-tempered and dramatic end to the race, Verstappen was asked he
would speak to Leclerc about the initial moment of contention.
"Honestly, I don't know what happened there," the 65-time grand
prix winner told media including RacingNews365 . It was really odd,
because he was already... basically the move was almost done, and
suddenly he moved left, which could have been a big one, but it was
just really weird. I don't know what happened. When it was put to
the 27-year-old that it looked "pretty scary", he agreed. "Yep,
yeah, it was," he responded. "I thought I was gonna have a
puncture, you know, because with the floor, you can cut the tyre.
But, I don't know."
