RED BULL’S MAD MAX IN PIT BUST-UP
BRAZILIAN GP RESULT
A FURIOUS Max Verstappen came to blows with Esteban Ocon at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver was caught on camera shoving his Force India rival after his hopes of winning the race were dashed.
Verstappen, 21, was on course for victory before Frenchman Ocon, 22, tried to unlap himself, wiping out Verstappen.
Verstappen branded Ocon a “f ***** g idiot” in an X-rated radio rant.
Ocon, way down the order, bizarrely raced wheel-to-wheel at 200mph with the leader before catching the rightrear 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, Lewis Hamilton sailed by to resume the lead.
Verstappen was left five seconds down on the Briton and with a damaged car was unable to claw the Mercedes back before he finished in second.
Verstappen yelled over the radio: “What a f ***** g idiot.”
“I don’t know what to say,” the Red Bull driver
(GB) (Ger) (Fin) (Fin) (Hol) (Aus) (Ger) (Mex) (Den) (Spa) said afterwards. “I hope I can’t find him now in the paddock,” followed by bleeped-out expletives.
Stewards hit Ocon with a 10-second stop-and-go penalty – the severest punishment available.
But it was little consolation to Verstappen, who confronted him in the paddock after the race.
Squaring up to Ocon, Verstappen was seen pushing him. The Frenchman tried to walk away, but Verstappen continued to shove him.
Pit crew had to separate them, before Verstappen stormed off.
World champion Lewis Hamilton capitalised on the incident to win by nine seconds.
Kimi Raikkonen finished third for Ferrari and that result means Hamilton’s Mercedes team have won their fifth consecutive constructors’ championship.
■ Watch the video at mirror.co.uk/sport