Max Verstappen says he made a quick apology to Oscar Piastri after their clash in the Abu Dhabi GP to “avoid any weird feelings” between the pair heading into the winter break.
Verstappen hit Piastri at the first corner, causing both drivers to spin. The Dutchman received a 10-second penalty for the incident, but still managed to recover to finish sixth.
Although unhappy with his penalty Verstappen made sure to speak to Piastri after the flag.
“The launch was good, and then I tried to grab the inside,” he said. “And I quickly realised, once I committed to it, that the gap was closing. I wanted to try and get out of it, because I didn’t want imagine of course a crash with Oscar.
“But unfortunately, we still clipped each other, but I already apologised to Oscar. There’s no way you want it to happen.
“And especially not with him, he’s a great guy. It happened, it’s just a bit unfortunate.”
Asked about the leeway normally given to first lap incidents he said: “Honestly, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m just happy that the season is over. For me, the most important thing that I had to do is just apologise to Oscar, because I have nothing to gain, nothing to lose.
“I went for it. It didn’t work out. And especially also for him, that we both spun, it’s not nice. He’s a friend of mine, so I don’t want to have any weird feelings or whatever going into the break.”
Regarding the consistency of recent penalties he added: “I don’t understand anything anymore, but it’s fine, whatever. I’m not going to get angry about stuff like that.
“It’s not worth my time. Just have a break. Like I said, the most important thing is that I apologised to Oscar, and that’s it.”
He acknowledged that Piastri wouldn’t have seen him as he headed into the first corner.
“I think when you’re in that position, you’re focusing on the car ahead,” he said. “You commit. That’s how I feel it as well, when you saw first or second, you never really looked behind. I went for it, and then I realised shit he doesn’t see me there.
“So I was trying to get out of it, but then we still clipped. And of course, that is on me, but I was expecting maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds, I don’t know, stop-and-go. So maybe something to talk about for next time.”
Regarding how costly the incident might have proved to McLaren’s title hopes he added: “I don’t do these things on purpose. That’s racing as well, right?
“It doesn’t only happen here, throughout the whole season you can blame things, that’s how you win or lose a championship.”
