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Max Verstappen told his critics to “f*** off” in an explosive media session after his crash with Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The three-time F1 world champion endured a torrid race at the Hungaroring, taking second place at turn one but overtaking Norris off the track. Despite initially refusing, he eventually listened to his engineer and gave the place back to the McLaren driver.
Verstappen was then vocally critical over the team radio about Red Bull’s strategy before a late collision with old foe Hamilton. The Dutchman surged up the inside at turn one and the pair collided, with Verstappen coming off worse and finishing in fifth while Hamilton was on the podium in third.
It capped off a day to forget for Verstappen and speaking with the written media in Budapest, the 26-year-old was brutal in his response when it was put to him that he may have taken his frustration too far.
“I see a lot of comments from people who say ‘you are too frustrated, you went too far in your comments, you disrespect the team’”, he said. “They can all f*** off.”
Verstappen went on to blame Hamilton for their collision, despite pundits and experts insisting the Dutchman was at fault. Both were cleared by the stewards after the race.
“I got a lot of s*** thrown at me in Austria when people saying moving under braking,” he said, in reference to his collision with Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix.
“I am positioning my car on the initial movement and then I kept it straight. Today, under braking, he just kept turning to the right and that is why I also locked up because I was going for the move but I saw the car on the outside kept coming at me.
“Otherwise, we would’ve already crashed before. I had to stop the car so that is why I locked up.”
Hamilton, however, accused Verstappen of “hostility” and laid the blame at the Red Bull driver’s door.
Verstappen, during the race, described the team’s strategy as “s***” as his anger boiled over, with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase at one point calling his driver “childish” as he argued his case following the Hamilton collision.
As a result of his fifth-place finish, Verstappen’s lead in the F1 world championship has been cut to 76 points after Norris finished second.
