Verstappen apology accepted by Massa

The storm in a tea cup caused by Max Verstappen's flippant remarks about Brazilians has been settled.

Verstappen had been criticised by Williams driver Felipe Massa for comments he made after qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Verstappen felt he'd been blocked by Massa during qualifying.

"Well, he's a Brazilian – so there's not much to discuss," Verstappen had said afterwards. The comment was slammed by Massa as insulting to his compatriots and Verstappen subsequently issued a full apology on Facebook.

"He was hot headed and said things he should not have," Massa is quoted as saying by Brazil's Globo. "But I get along really well with him. I have no problems with him. To be honest I was only playing with him.

"I think he understood, because he apologised. That's the way it should have gone. He's a cool guy, a great driver and I'm sure with age, he's going to get better."

With that out of the way, Verstappen is free to look ahead to the next race on the calendar, the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi next weekend.

• Verstappen apologises to Brazilians for disrespectful remark

Last year he arrived at Sochi as a Toro Rosso driver. But by the time he took to the track in Spain two weeks later, he'd been bumped up to the senior Red Bull squad.

"It’s an interesting track, it has a lot of long straights," said the teenager this week.

"Despite that fact, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso have actually done pretty well on that track in the past.

"The corners are mostly 90 degrees, which you normally never experience. It’s quite a flat track. Not a lot of elevation changes and some difficult braking zones.

"It’s always challenging to come from high speed into a low-speed corner and achieve the best out of it in braking.

"I’m definitely looking forward to going back there and have a good race."

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