Christian Horner has given his take on the collision between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The 2021 Championship rivals came together following a Safety Car restart in the early stages of the Interlagos race.
Verstappen’s overtaking attempt around the outside of Hamilton at Turn 1 became the inside line for Turn 2, where the pair collided on the apex of the corner.
Both ran wide and lost places, with Hamilton losing several positions and continuing and Verstappen sustaining front wing damage and earning a five-second time penalty.
Hamilton was able to recover to second place and challenge for the victory, whilst Verstappen finished a sixth place which was shrouded in controversy.
Horner: This is Verstappen’s only incident of the year
Speaking after the race, Red Bull Team Principal Horner spoke of his ‘frustration’ at the incident and suggested that Verstappen’s time penalty was a harsh punishment.
“I thought he’d earned a bit more space than he was given,” Horner told media.
“Lewis could have given him a bit more to work with, because he [Verstappen] was ahead going into the left hand [Turn 1].
“It’s unfortunate, I think it’s the only incident that Max has had this year. So unfortunately, Max was deemed at fault with the five-second penalty, which then just hurts our race even more. It was very frustrating.
“For us, it was just disappointing to get the damage and drop so much lap time, and that put Max very much on the backfoot.
“We were surprised by the penalty because he basically got it for a racing incident.”
