Daniel Ricciardo believes his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen was “a little too greedy” and squeezed Lewis Hamilton too much in their controversial Bahrain Grand Prix clash.
Verstappen dived inside Hamilton at Turn 1 at the start of the second lap and was almost clear of the Mercedes before his left-rear wheel made contact with Hamilton’s front wing.
That damaged the rim on Verstappen’s car and caused an immediate puncture, which led to the differential being terminally wounded as he limped back to the pits.
Hamilton and Verstappen cleared the air face-to-face in China on Thursday, and Ricciardo said the young Dutchman was at fault.
“I’ll be honest,” said Ricciardo. “It didn’t deserve a penalty so that was fine.
“But it reminded me a little bit of me and [Nico] Rosberg in Budapest [in 2015] where he kept coming and I was on the exit kerb and had nowhere else to go.
“Max had the move [completed] already, I just don’t think he needed to run all the way to the kerb.
“Regardless Max would have stayed ahead, he was just a little too greedy.”
Hamilton said Verstappen was a “dickhead” immediately after the race in the room the top three drivers wait in before the podium ceremony.
He claimed he had forfeited the corner, and Ricciardo agreed Hamilton could not have done more to avoid it.
“I heard some people say Lewis could have lifted but you’re there, unless he turned off the track or braked…it’s easier said than done,” he said.
“Lewis was so tight [to the outside of the track] as well, he wasn’t going to make Turn 2 with any form of speed.
“Even if Max had hung around the outside [through Turn 2] Max would have had him regardless.
“He squeezed him a little too much in my opinion.”