The opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix was far from clean, as a collision took both Kimi Räikkönen and Max Verstappen out of the race in the first corner. The stewards investigated the incident and decided not to penalize any of the drivers involved, but who is to blame?
Getting off of the line, the Mercedes cars had the edge, but the Ferrari and Red Bull cars quickly made up the ground they had lost with a quicker acceleration. Sebastian Vettel was able to get his Ferrari ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes before the first corner, but the issues were right behind them.
Valtteri Bottas took the first corner slightly cautiously, braking well ahead of the cars around him. This allowed Räikkönen to contest on the outside of the corner and for Verstappen to dive from the inside to the outside alongside Räikkönen. This left Bottas at the bottom, Verstappen on the outside and Räikkönen stuck in the middle, as the trio went three wide into the corner.
It was then that Bottas’ front-left tyre made minor contact with the right-rear tyre of Räikkönen’s Ferrari. Although the contact was not enough to damage either car, it was enough to bounce Räikkönen into Verstappen’s car. The Red Bull and the Ferrari collided with each other’s front tyres, damaging each other’s suspension and thus ending their race prematurely.
As with any collision in motorsport, each driver had their own side of the story.
Räikkönen was unlucky enough to be stuck in the middle of a sandwich in turn one. The Finn insists that Bottas had ample space on the inside of the corner, claiming that there is nothing either himself or Verstappen could have done:
“I made a good start, but on the main straight I got blocked once by Bottas. I chose to lift and go a little bit on the left to leave him space, but, I don’t know how, he hit me on the right rear corner, my car jumped and I end up going into Verstappen. There was nothing me or Max could have done, when you get hit from behind in that way there’s no way to avoid the collision. I’m pretty sure Valtteri had enough space. Unfortunately my race ended there.”
Verstappen made it clear that he didn’t feel the incident was Räikkönen’s fault, placing the blame on Bottas in the Mercedes:
“An unfortunate start to the race which ultimately finished it also. I tried to go around the outside as there was plenty of room there. If Valtteri had not touched Kimi, we all would have had enough room to get through that corner. Due to the contact it meant Kimi lost control and slammed into me, but it wasn’t his fault.”
Bottas was the only driver in the incident to continue the race with virtually no damage, although he later retired from the race because of a power unit failure. He didn’t have much to say about the incident:
“The first corner was very tight. I had a good start but there was no were to go. I tried to avoid the collision but I touched Kimi.”
The stewards announced that they would investigate the incident, later saying that they would not take further action on any of the drivers. Do you feel that was the right decision or do you think there was someone to blame?
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