Whatever one's view of yesterday's incident(s) involving Max Verstappen and Esteban Ocon, the situation was hardly helped by the somewhat incendiary comments from Helmut Marko and Christian Horner.

For once turning their ire from Renault, Marko suggested that the on-track incident involving the two drivers was most likely due to Ocon - a Mercedes driver - seeking to please his bosses by taking out Verstappen and thereby handing victory - and the constructors' title - to the German team.

Meanwhile, following the altercation in the FIA weigh bridge garage, Horner said Ocon was lucky to have ‘only' been pushed by Verstappen and not received the full 'Verstappen-slappen'.

While Force India boss, Otmar Szafnauer, insists that Ocon had every right to fight to un-lap himself, he was also keen to dismiss Marko's suggestion.

"That's a conspiracy theory and I doubt a racing driver is thinking about his drive for 2020 with what he does today, absolutely not," Szafnauer told reporters.

"Esteban came on the radio and said can I un-lap myself because I am quicker and we said yes go ahead. At that point he had a tyre advantage and we probably would have had a tyre advantage for five, six, seven, eight laps. Whatever Max was doing to gently bring his tyres in, we didn't need to do that.

"At six laps with a half-second tyre advantage, that's three seconds," he continued. "We were racing other people and can't get stuck even though it is behind the race leader. So, yes we had to do it... in our race we had to do it."

Meanwhile, several hours after the incident, Ocon took to social media.

"I'm very sorry for Max, crashing with a lapped car should never happen," he wrote on Instagram, "it was his race to win.

"But on my side I got told to un-lap myself as I was quicker on a fresh set, and it was not an option to lift in the straight line. It is an unfortunate incident and of course we don't want to see those things happen."

On Twitter, he wrote: "I respect the FIA's decision but just to be clear, if you are faster you are allowed to un-lap yourself. I overtook 7 times into turn 2 this race it was always tight, but always fair..." accompanying the comment with a number of pictures, including one of him getting 'up close and personal' with Fernando Alonso as he passed him in the same corner.

It was later reported that the pair had been seen shaking hands - though Marko will no doubt claim it was arm-wrestling.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Interlagos, here.

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by imejl99, 13/11/2018 8:22

"@The Canadian, look, 2nd (should be 1st) and 4th vs 12th, 15th, 17th and DNF, with the same engine. Toro Rosso general standings are not real, as they sacrificed a lot of races for updates. Max statement of the difference in the approach toward Honda... I am considering pre-season bet ;)

Regarding conspiracy, 2 contact prone drivers collided. Nothing to see here, move on."

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by The Canadian, 13/11/2018 3:23

"Too funny! Horner will lose his shit next year when his speed drops to that of Haas..."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by Batman, 12/11/2018 20:03

"Helmut Marko and Christian Horner, or better saying Statler & Waldorf, forgot to thank Renault for giving them the best engine of the Brazilian GP. "

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by Anthony, 12/11/2018 18:54

"If Marko, Horner and other senior Red Bull personnel spent less time complaining about everyone (other than of course their own people), then I would be more sympathetic. "

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by *TestaRossa*, 12/11/2018 15:36

"I agree !00% with @Stitch431"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

6. Posted by klmn, 12/11/2018 15:02

"No doubt Ocon wanted to do some good for his Merc bosses , maybe he did not want to take out Max but for sure he wanted to hold him up like Bottas did with Vettel before . But Ocon does not control his car very well as he has even taken out his team mate many times . And indeed a red mist too. So no wonder he has no seat next year"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

7. Posted by kdxrider, 12/11/2018 14:31

"To paraphrase a comment made by the Red Bull Higher ups which seems appropriate here:

"It's been a long time that we stopped listening to them""

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

8. Posted by Spindoctor, 12/11/2018 14:13

"Ridiculous. This is what happens when two adrenaline-fueled young men are "fighting" for something. Maxie is hardly an innocent when it comes to the red-mist..."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

9. Posted by Stitch431, 12/11/2018 12:42

"Well finally. If he would have said that on the weighing bridge to Max immediately, there would not have been any pushing. But at least now he apologized. Better late than never."

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Szafnauer dismisses Marko's conspiracy theory

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page