Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri have each given their take on the Lap 1 incident that kickstarted a difficult race for them both in Abu Dhabi, with Verstappen receiving a penalty for the clash while Piastri dropped down the order and faced a tough recovery drive.
With Lando Norris enjoying a strong start from pole, Verstappen surged forwards to battle Piastri for P2 but contact occurred between them, resulting in both cars spinning and dropping backwards.
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The stewards went on to hand Verstappen a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision and, when reflecting on the clash later on, the Dutchman admitted that this had been the beginning of a challenging evening for him en route to a final result of P6.
“The start was good again – they have been pretty good all year,” Verstappen commented. “I went up the inside, of course I was not all the way alongside so I tried to then back out of it on the apex, tried to run onto the kerb but the damage was already done and we clipped with Oscar’s left rear with my right front.
“That was really unlucky, I hate coming together. It was just really… swear word! Yeah, it’s not what I want to happen of course, and after that it was just a very difficult race. We didn’t have the pace also, so a bit of a shame.”
