F1: 5 times Verstappen Clashed with Other Drivers

#5 China 2018

The Chinese Grand Prix was the third of the 2018 season and as mentioned before, Max Verstappen had a DNF in Bahrain. So, coming into the season’s first consecutive weekend, Verstappen was expected to put up a better showing than he had done previously.

He did not disappoint in qualifying as he qualified ahead of teammate Ricciardo and was the best behind the top 4 cars in 5th position. Verstappen also got away in the start without any incident, overtaking Raikkonen within the first lap to take the third position. This was maintained for a number of laps until a clash between the Toro Rossos brought things to a head.

Both Red Bull cars had enough time to dive into the pits as the Safety Car was brought out and had much fresher tyres than the Mercedes and Ferrari cars. As the Safety Car peeled in, Verstappen running behind Hamilton put him under immense pressure but once again could not wait it out. He ran wide, lost a position to Ricciardo who would then display an overtaking masterclass to take victory.

This was not the only incident involving Verstappen however. After falling back, Vettel was running ahead of him down the straight before the last corner. He locked up ever so slightly and Verstappen turned in sharply, colliding into Vettel and damaging his sidepod. Verstappen escaped unharmed and overtook Hamilton once again to take 5th place, though he was given a 10-second penalty which dropped him to 6th.

Vettel would finish down in 9th, his championship lead cut to just 17 points. Both drivers behaved maturely after the race with Verstappen accepting blame for the incident and Vettel forgiving him.