Verstappen snaps: Heated clash with Kravitz over Red Bull 'blame game'

10:21, 13 Jun

Updated: 12:00, 13 Jun

byOlly Darcy

Max Verstappen has clashed with Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz in a frosty exchange at the Canadian Grand Prix.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen was informed over the team radio that he needed to give the position back to Russell after rejoining the track in front of the Mercedes driver.

That led to the Dutchman dropping from a podium finish in P3 down to P10 after he was handed a ten-second time penalty, along with three penalty points, for swerving into George Russell.

However, after the race, it was then announced by the FIA that Verstappen did not need to give Russell the place back in the final few laps, meaning the information the 27-year-old got over the team radio was wrong.

Max Verstappen now sits just one penalty point away from a race ban, meaning anything collected at the Canadian Grand Prix will result in a race ban for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen snaps back at 'singling out' questions

During the media day in Montreal, Kravitz asked what was being done behind the scenes at Red Bull to make sure issues like that don't happen again.

During the question, he mentioned Stephen Knowles, who is Red Bull's Senior Race Strategy Engineer, with Kravtiz saying he "assumed" he informed Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, to give the place back.

"I think it's not really nice to try and single out a person, to be honest, because that's never the case," Verstappen sharply responded to Sky Sports.

"I think we just look at it as a team, what we always can do better, and that's also how we look at it in Barcelona. But it's not fair to now single out one single person."

Read also

"I don't think I was singling him out. I wasn't saying it was Stephen Knowles' fault. I just named him," was the response from Kravtiz, seemingly taken aback by the response from the four-time world champion.

"But you mentioned him. We're talking about him. You're singling him out," Verstappen snapped back, continuing to reaffirm his earlier point.

"I do not need to discuss that anyway here. If we ever look at things that we can do better, we do that, like every other team. But I'm not going to stand here in front of the camera and say who was at fault exactly. We all live and learn."

The response then came from the Brit: "I wasn't asking you to do that. Just to be clear, I was asking how... You live and learn, exactly," Kravtiz then tailed off.