'I definitely took one for the team' - Verstappen

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Max Verstappen says he "definitely took one for the team" by letting Daniel Ricciardo pass him during the German Grand Prix.

An impressive start saw Verstappen jump from fourth to second at Turn 1, and led Ricciardo for the first half of the race. After Nico Rosberg pushed him wide at Turn 6, Verstappen - on the soft tyre - was being caught by Ricciardo on the supersofts and moved over on lap 42 to allow his team-mate to chase down Rosberg for second place.

Verstappen said he could have finished second himself as Rosberg still had a time penalty to take, but understood why he should move over for Ricciardo.

“Yeah of course, I think I definitely took one for the team today but that’s alright," Verstappen said. "I think Daniel and I have a good relationship so we can do that. I think the most important thing for us was to be in front of Ferrari and it definitely worked today, we were even challenging Mercedes, so we kept Nico behind us on just fair pace and that was good.”

Asked if he hopes Red Bull remembers the move in future, Verstappen replied: “Yeah you have to gain their trust as well a bit because I’m still quite new to them but it’s alright.

"The pace was good so I’m happy for that, so I think for the team it was a very positive day.”

Speaking about the incident with Rosberg, Verstappen felt the Mercedes driver deliberately didn't leave him room.

“Well he braked really late and as soon as he came next to me he just didn’t turn in, a bit like in Austria so he just forced me to go off the track, when he easily would have made the corner.”

When it was put to Verstappen that Rosberg insisted he was on full lock, the 18-year-old replied: “Well I could still see his hands going straight so I don’t know if that’s full lock.”

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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.