SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- Max Verstappen has continued defending his driving at the Belgian Grand Prix, saying Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel should be "ashamed" for blaming him for their Turn 1 collision.
Starting from a career-best second, a slow getaway saw Verstappen drop behind both Ferrari drivers off the line. He then cut inside of Raikkonen on the short run down to La Source, with the Finnish driver also contending with Ferrari teammate Vettel on the outside.
As he turned in Vettel made contact with Raikkonen on the outside, before Raikkonen made contact with Verstappen -- forcing all three men to pit at the end of the first lap and dropping them out of contention. Both drivers blamed Verstappen for the incident and also questioned his antics later in the race, which saw him force the Ferraris wide at Les Combes in separate incidents.
However, Verstappen is adamant two of the grid's most experienced and decorated drivers should know better than to lay all the blame at his feet.
"I think they should be ashamed to cause a crash like that with their amount of experience and then complain about me," Verstappen told Dutch press after the race. "Then they don't have to make a drama about what happened afterwards. They have to understand I'm not happy with them screwing up my entire race."
Verstappen thinks the blame should be given to Vettel for turning in so early on the outside.
"There was room for three cars. When I got alongside Kimi, he started squeezing me. If Vettel hadn't turned in and left one more metre of room, we would have all gotten through. On the video you can clearly see when Vettel turns in, he drives into Raikkonen. And then Kimi's car bumps into mine."
As for the incidents later in the race at Les Combes, Verstappen admits he was taking out his frustration on both Ferrari drivers for ruining a golden opportunity to challenge Nico Rosberg for a second career victory.
"If they screw up my race, I'm not going to make it easy for them. I think they should understand that.
"I'm not going to say: 'come on through'. But all that happened after Turn 1. If Turn 1 hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been so aggressive and pushed Raikkonen out like that."