Max Verstappen says Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost would have liked his defensive driving against Kimi Raikkonen in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen was fighting through the field on fresh supersoft tyres in the final stint of the race and caught Verstappen who was on older soft tyres. While the Ferrari was clearly quicker at that stage, Verstappen defended robustly with one move at Turn 2 seeing Raikkonen break his front wing on the rear of the Red Bull.
There was no investigation into the incident but Raikkonen maintained after the race that Verstappen had gone too far, something the Red Bull driver refutes.
“I think generally I was very happy to not get a puncture because I got quite a big cut on my tyre," Verstappen said. "I think it was all pretty clear, there was nothing said from the stewards as well so I think I didn’t do anything wrong.
"At the end of the day we are fighting in the championship with Ferrari so it’s not like you say ‘thank you very much, the door is open, you can go’, because he didn’t do it to me as well after the first pit stop.
"You are fighting and it’s not like we are on a Sunday drive, that’s how I approach the race because we are there to fight and we are there to score points and I think Senna and Prost would have liked it as well.”
When asked about a separate move under braking at Turn 1 against Raikkonen, Verstappen said he himself had been less optimistic with some attempts to overtake the Finn earlier in the race.
“There was no front wing or anything next to my car and I don’t think it was that dramatic. In the end you know it’s very hard to overtake on that track, like you could see after my first stop I was on new tyres, I was behind Kimi, I couldn’t get past so then I don’t start to do crazy things. I don’t go too optimistic into the braking zone and try to pass because there’s just no way to get past.”
With Martin Brundle also outspoken about Verstappen's driving, the 18-year-old said he doesn't mind the criticism.
“No everybody can have criticism can’t they? It’s nice, there are some stories we have to read. It’s OK. It fills up my day as well so it’s good.”
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Scene at the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix
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