Oscar Piastri couldn’t resist taking a swipe at Max Verstappen after the pair collided on the first corner of the opening lap at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Red Bull driver Verstappen, who sealed a fourth-straight Formula One championship title in Las Vegas last month, clipped the back of Piastri’s McLaren, sending the two vehicles spinning in a moment of high drama at the start of the race.
Verstappen subsequently received a 10-second penalty for the move, with Piastri’s McLaren team-mate, Lando Norris, opening up a sizeable lead after securing pole at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Norris would go on to storm to victory to seal McLaren this season’s constructors’ title. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, both driving for Ferrari, joined the 25-year-old Brit on the podium, finishing second and third respectively.
Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth place in his last ever race for Mercedes ahead of his switch to Ferrari in 2025.
‘Yep, move of a world champion, that one,’ a less-than-impressed Piastri said sarcastically on McLaren’s team radio following the early collision.
When informed that Verstappen had been given a penalty, the Australian bluntly replied: ‘Good.’
Verstappen could initially be heard saying he had been ‘unlucky’ before unloading on the stewards for the severity of the punishment, branding those responsible ‘stupid idiots’.
‘Can we ask for 20 seconds? Stupid idiots,’ he fumed.
Verstappen’s latest clash comes just days after he was involved in a heated confrontation with Mercedes driver George Russell, a story which dominated the build-up to this weekend’s race.
Having blocked Russell in qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix, Verstappen was handed a one-place grid penalty, though would still triumph to win his ninth race of the season.
After Verstappen said he had ‘lost all respect for Russell’ for his apparent role in the penalty, the latter would go on to accuse his rival of threatening to ‘put my f***ing head in the wall’.
‘What he was doing [in qualifying] was pretty clear. He was going too slow and he was on the racing line. We all have the rules to follow and he doesn’t follow it,’ Russell told Sky Sports.
‘I find his comments pretty ironic when he comes out and says, “I’m gonna purposefully crash into you, I’m gonna put you on your f***ing head in the wall”.
‘For me, that is unacceptable and he’s gone beyond the line here and I’m not going to accept it. Someone’s got to stand up to a guy like this before it gets out of control.’
Russell added: ‘We went into the stewards and for the first five minutes, I didn’t say a word because they were only talking to Max and he was already and swearing at the stewards.
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‘When they asked for my opinion I told them exactly the facts. I was following my delta time, we all have this lap time we have to follow.
‘They also say if you’re driving slow you need to move off the line and I wasn’t trying to get Max a penalty.
‘At this point in qualifying I was in first position. I don’t even think Max was in second position at this point. I was just trying to prepare my lap, he was 20 seconds too slow on his lap, he was parked in the middle, and I didn’t argue with the stewards.’
More to follow.
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