Red Bull's Max Verstappen believes Sebastian Vettel's mistake in last weekend's German Grand Prix could have happened to anyone given the tricky conditions that prevailed on Sunday.
Vettel was in control of events when adverse weather suddenly triggered chaos in the field with one third of the race still to be run.
Challenged by the conditions and the sporadic rain, Vettel appeared to steer clear from the difficulties until his Ferrari suddenly veered off the track and into the barriers Hockenheim's stadium section.
However, Verstappen believes mitigating circumstances should be taken into consideration before blasting his rival's fault.
"It was super tricky out there, especially in that corner," Verstappen said on Sunday.
''Even if you experience the slightest lock up there, you immediately go off. These were very difficult circumstances. So things like this can happen.
"It could have happened to someone else just as easily. You just try to find good grip everywhere, but you don't want to take too many risks because you already have some good points in the bag," he added.
"You don't want to risk losing those by going off. Dealing with that risk is very difficult. If you lock up for just a moment, you fly off the track."
A man who usually excels in the rain or when conditions are treacherous, Verstappen also found himself at odds with the circumstances after an untimely switch to intermediates.
"It just didn't go our way," said the Red Bull driver who nevertheless finished fourth.
"Normally I pray for rain, but this time it didn't help me. Fourth was the best possible. It really started to rain heavily.
"The rain spread towards Turns 8 and 10, so I thought, 'if it continues like this, then it's also going to come to the third sector'.
"Unfortunately that wasn't the case. So then I had to pit again. I took a gamble and it didn't work out."
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