Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen has hit out at Mercedes chief Toto Wolff for criticizing driver Valtteri Bottas after the Mexican Grand Prix.
Following the Mexican GP, Wolff was annoyed that Bottas allowed Verstappen through in the first corner and publicly criticized his driver. Now, Verstappen has come to the aid of the Finnish driver, in an interview.
“You have to leave room for a car width, otherwise he [Bottas] would have received a penalty. I don’t know what Toto is talking about. You can easily blame it on Valtteri, but I think that is very cheap,” said the current leader of the F1 Drivers’ Championship.
At this past weekend’s Mexican GP, Bottas, who started on pole, was side-by-side with teammate Lewis Hamilton in the first corner, but Verstappen had a huge gap to drive into and overtake both in the very first lap.
Wolff wasn’t pleased with the way Bottas handled the first corner of the race and stated that it shouldn’t have happened.
“That should not happen. I think we had two cars in front and seemed to open up the seal for Max to come around the outside,” said Wolff after the race. The Mercedes team boss also noted that Bottas spinning out was painful as it hurt the team’s Constructors’ points table.
Bottas’ teammate Lewis Hamilton also felt that the Finnish driver left the door open for Verstappen to drive past him and take the lead of the race.
“I was covering my side of the track making sure that no one could come up the inside, so was trying to keep whichever Red Bull I could see in my mirror behind. I thought Valtteri would be doing the same, but he left the door open for Max,” said Hamilton.
The Red Bulls had tremendous pace at the Mexican Grand Prix, which Toto Wolff admitted to as well, and felt that Verstappen would’ve eventually overtaken Bottas and Hamilton even if the Silver Arrows had the lead after the first corner.
The Dutchman, eventually, cruised to his ninth race win of the season, extending his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship to 19 points over Hamilton. Verstappen is the favorite to win his first world title over the seven-time world champion with four races to go in the season.
F1 next travels to the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil, followed by the final three rounds in the Middle East with Qatar, Saudi Arabian, and Abu Dhabi Grand Prixs.
