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Verstappen baffled by Bottas incidents

Max Verstappen was left bemused by Valtteri Bottas after the Finn twice tried to overtake on flying laps during qualifying for the Grand Prix of Europe.

Bottas attempted to pass Verstappen on the inside of Turn 1 in Q2, forcing the Red Bull wide and compromising both of their laps. With a repeat incident occurring in the final part of qualifying, Verstappen feels Bottas should have learned from the first occasion.

"Yeah, it’s just not clever, I think," Verstappen said. "I was preparing for my timed lap and I understand he wants a tow, but I think there was not one point where he was able to overtake me and brake in a sensible position.

"So I lose my lap and he loses his own lap. I can understand if it’s just once and you say ‘OK, his top speed is not too bad and I am not able to do this’, but to do it again in Q3, I just don’t get it."

Explaining why he stayed wide during the first incident between the two, Verstappen said he was afraid of contact.

"He was locking up, so I thought maybe he was going to hit my side. So I had to go wide. I lost that set [of tyres], I had to come in and had only one run in Q2, so it’s all very difficult.

"I think nothing was going through his head at that moment, [that’s what] it seemed like."

Asked if he would speak to Bottas, Verstappen replied: "Nope, I don’t need to be the person to go to him, he should go to me.

"I don’t say a penalty, but it was dangerous what he was doing. Dangerous and unnecessary and not clever.

"In general I think you can never be best buddies in Formula One. For me it’s fine, but I hope he learns from it."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.