Five of Max Verstappen’s previous bust-ups
The Red Bull driver is no stranger to confrontations with his fellow drivers.
Max Verstappen squared up to driver Esteban Ocon and shoved him three times after a collision with the Force India driver cost him the race.
Verstappen was sentenced to two days of community service by Formula One’s governing body after the incident.
Here, Press Association Sport takes a look at five of Verstappen’s previous bust-ups.
Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen, Belgian Grand Prix, 2016
The second incident was the more dramatic, and forced Raikkonen to lift to avoid going into the back of Verstappen after he moved across the circuit, and the Finn said on the radio: “Clearly his only interest is pushing me off the circuit completely,” before swearing.
Raikkonen said after the race he felt Verstappen would cause “a massive accident sooner or later” with his tactics but the then 18-year-old insisted he was simply defending his position.
Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, Bahrain Grand Prix, 2018
The British driver called Verstappen a ‘d*******’ when he saw the incident before the podium ceremony, although he later apologised.
Speaking afterwards, Hamilton emphasised post-race emotions can run high after a race and that it was good to see some emotion in sport.
Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, Hungarian Grand Prix, 2018
On the first lap of the race in Hungary, Verstappen crashed into team-mate Ricciardo, sending the Australian into a spin which forced him out of the race.
In a Sky Sports interview after the race, Ricciardo called the fellow Red Bull driver “amateur” and added he made a “very poor mistake”.
Verstappen later apologised for the incident and was given a 10-second penalty by the race stewards.
Verstappen and Valterri Bottas, Italian Grand Prix, 2018
On the radio, Verstappen said: “It’s b*******. I gave him space. They’re doing a great job at killing racing honestly.”
In addition to the five-second penalty, two points were also added to Verstappen’s licence after the stewards had reviewed the video evidence from the collision.
Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, Mexico Grand Prix, 2018
On what should have been a good weekend for the Red Bull team after Riccardo took pole position in qualifying and Verstappen second, the latter was unhappy with his team-mate’s celebrations.
According to the Dutchman’s father Jos Verstappen, his son got three hours sleep because he was angry and only wanted to win the race.
Ricciardo has decided to leave Red Bull for Renault next season and has insisted he was ‘done’ with the team.
