Max Verstappen has admitted to deliberately retaliating to Esteban Ocon following a heated moment in Saturday’s qualifying in Las Vegas. The pair exchanged verbals through their team’s radios in Q1 and the three-time world champion has now given his honest opinion on the incident.
Charles Leclerc secured pole position for Ferrari ahead of Carlos Sainz. Verstappen finished third but the Red Bull star will be on the front row after Sainz was handed a controversial 10-place grid penalty following the damage to his car caused by a loose manhole cover in Friday’s first practice session.
Verstappen will be aiming to come from behind and win his 18th race of a historic season. Ocon, though, will be down in 16th on the grid after a day to forget for the Alpine driver.
Ocon was eliminated after he was forced to overtake several cars ahead of his final lap. One of those was Verstappen, who was also preparing for his final lap.
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Read more… Verstappen in furious message as Las Vegas GP rival called ‘stupid idiot’
The Dutchman made it clear he was not happy with Ocon’s move. He said on the Red Bull team radio: “What the f**k is that Alpine doing? Stupid idiot.”
Verstappen appeared to enact revenge by dive-bombing Ocon going into Turn 1. Ocon had to swerve to avoid a collision with the 26-year-old.
Verstappen has now confirmed his move was out of retaliation in an interview with Viaplay. But it was no good for Ocon who will now start well down the grid in tonight’s race.
The 27-year-old fumed at the time of the incident, ranting: “That’s a joke honestly, Verstappen diving into one like crazy.”
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Speaking after qualifying had finished, Ocon explained why he felt forced to overtake cars at the time. He said: “The difference between me and him [Verstappen] is that I have to do that lap because I had traffic in that first lap and if I don’t do the second one, I’m out.
“He has plenty of pace, so he can afford not to do his second lap. But we were not respecting the delta.
“So it couldn’t happen again. I had no choice, I had to go, so yeah, that was it. The difference between me and Max is he’s third, and I’m 17th.”
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