Verstappen blows his top with ‘idiot’ Ocon
MAX VERSTAPPEN was involved in an amazing bust-up with Esteban Ocon, after the Red Bull driver was robbed of a brilliant victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
In a race won by Lewis Hamilton, the Dutchman branded Ocon a “f ****** idiot” following a collision that wrecked his chances.
And the pair almost came to blows after the race as they were involved in a heated shoving match.
Ocon said: “I was really surprised by the behaviour of Max, with the FIA having to intervene. He pushed me and wanted to punch me and that’s not professional.”
Superb
Verstappen, 21, was in complete control of the race after passing both Mercedes and both Ferrari cars in a superb performance at the Interlagos circuit.
But Verstappen was taken out of the lead when attempting to lap the Force India driver.
Ocon, running way down the order, bizarrely raced wheel to wheel at 200mph with the leader as he tried to unlap himself, before banging into the right rear of Verstappen’s car.
The force of the hefty impact on lap 43 sent Verstappen into a spin.
And with the Dutchman facing the wrong way, Hamilton sailed by to resume the lead.
Verstappen was then five seconds down on Hamilton and – with a wounded car – was unable to claw the Mercedes back in and finished second.
Frenchman Ocon was hit with a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, the most severe punishment available to the stewards, but it will come as little consolation to a furious Verstappen.
The Red Bull driver snapped: “I don’t know what to say. The penalty for me is that I lost the victory.
“Hopefully we can laugh about it in 15 years.”
Hamilton, however, was delighted with his good fortune, saying: “I came through with these two guys facing me on either side and I from PHILIP DUNCAN in Sao Paulo
thought, ‘Hey, this is nice’. It was incredible to have the spirit of a racer, that I’ve had since I was five, and never lose that. I had that fight like I was a kid.”
On what Verstappen should have done faced with Ocon, Hamilton said: “You always make sure there is space.”
Kimi Raikkonen finished third for Ferrari, but it wasn’t enough to stop Hamilton’s Mercedes team from winning their fifth consecutive constructors’ championship.
Hamilton started in pole position and made no mistake from his starting blocks as he won the race to the uphill opening left bend.
It was not long before Verstappen, the winner in Mexico, was on the move from fifth on the V Bottas (lap 65) 1min 10.540secs. grid. He dashed past Hamilton on the main straight with 31 laps to go and that looked to be that.
But just four laps later the result dramatically turned on its head when Verstappen was wiped out.
Daniel Ricciardo took fourth for Red Bull ahead of Bottas and Sebastian Vettel.