Verstappen: Raikkonen 'moaning' after 'ridiculous' Turn 1

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Max Verstappen has described contact with the Ferraris at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix as "ridiculous", and says Kimi Raikkonen is just "moaning".

Raikkonen was angered by Verstappen's defensive driving at Les Combes, with the Red Bull driver forcing the Ferrari wide on lap 12 and then shutting the door on the Kemmel Straight a lap later. Verstappen says he was defending robustly after contact with the Ferraris at Turn 1, when Sebastian Vettel turned in and hit Raikkonen who had the 18-year-old on his inside.

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“Yeah of course the start wasn’t great but from there I dived up the inside, I didn’t lock a wheel so I was easily making the corner but they just kept squeezing me," Verstappen said. "At one point I was on the inside, Kimi was again squeezing me and Sebastian just turned in on both of us. That took my front wing, I had a lot of damage and also the floor got destroyed so from there on your race is gone.

“Definitely [Vettel should have left room], I mean he knows that he’s on the outside and suddenly he just turns into the corner where there are two other cars, so I think that’s pretty logical.”

Asked for his thoughts on Raikkonen's comments later in the race that Verstappen just wants to drive him off the road, the Dutchman replied: “Ah he should say that at Turn 1… I mean, it’s ridiculous.

"It’s good television if somebody is moaning. Especially after Turn 1 when they do something to you like that, I’m not going to give up my position to them that easy afterwards.”

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Asked if he believes he might be being too aggressive, Verstappen said: “To be honest I think that’s a big lie.

"I’m just defending my position and if somebody doesn't like it it’s his own problem.”

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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.