30/10/2016
NEWS STORY
Verstappen critical of "frustrated" Sebastian Vettel's tactics and his attitude.
Though it's a couple of months away, it's fair to say that Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel are unlikely to be exchanging Christmas cards.
Following today's Mexican Grand Prix which saw the teenager handed a time penalty which demoted him to fifth after he was deemed to have run wide during his battle with the German and thereby gained an advantage, the Red Bull driver was severely critical of the Ferrari driver, not only for his tactics but his attitude.
"At least I can do it in a good way, he doesn't know how to do it because it's ridiculous what he did," said the youngster of Verstappen's move under braking as he defended against Ricciardo, the sort of move which has seen Verstappen widely criticised.
"Daniel is alongside him, and he just turned into him," he told Sky Sports. "They touched, and then he just starts shouting on the radio.
"I don't know how many times he's using bad language in general. I think he has to go back to school or something to get some language.
Asked if he had already spoken to the German he said he hadn't but added: "I will speak to him, because this is just ridiculous the way he's handling it. He's always so frustrated, the whole weekend he's shouting on the weekend. In the end he's just a very frustrated guy at the moment."
The youngster was critical of his penalty, citing that it was similar to that of Hamilton on the first lap, for which the Briton was not punished.
"I think it's pretty similar to what happened on Lap one, corner one," he said. "Lewis went off, he gained a massive advantage. Nico also went off when we touched and he also gained an advantage.
"I didn't even gain an advantage," he continued, "I was still ahead under braking when I came back on the track I was staying the same length in front.
"So, yeah, I think it's ridiculous. They thought I had to give it back, but it was never confirmed. I was not backing him up, I was trying to do the best I could. If they don't give Nico a penalty for that, don't give me a penalty at the end of the race."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Mexico City, here.