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Kimi Raikkonen brands Max Verstappen’s defensive driving ‘questionable’

Kimi Raikkonen has called on Formula One to review the way rules are enforced during races after his battle with Max Verstappen in Hungary.

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“Our drivers did an outstanding race really giving their best and, if Seb could have benefited from a better starting position, the final result would surely have been different”. Raikkonen hit the Red Bull and damaged his front wing.

I felt like I had a good start and got close to Lewis into Turn One but then ran out of track and couldn’t brake late.

“I tried to miss him and I just managed to miss him but it was two times that, in my feeling, he wasn’t correct”.

“One of Max’s strengths is that he’s very aggressive, obviously sometimes you overstep the line but I am against the whole policy of penalties and very complicated ruling. It was good that I managed to somehow half miss him”.

Raikkonen said: “For me, he moved once to the right, I made a decision to go left and the other vehicle moved left”.

The pair almost collided a second time later in the race, only for Raikkonen to lock up and bail out, narrowly missing Verstappen as he moved across to defend. “And he took the front wing off”. I only moved once. “Any driver moving back towards the racing line, having earlier defended his position off-line, should leave at least one auto width between his own vehicle and the edge of the track on the approach to the corner”.

Scuderia Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene admitted dissatisfaction with the lack of a podium finish at the Hungaroring on Sunday despite two strong drives from Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

When told about Raikkonen’s complaints, Verstappen said: “As a driver you always try to find excuses”.

“How can you suddenly have the same rule in the same qualifying applied two different ways? There’s a rule, it should apply exactly the same way every time to everybody”. Can someone explain me how that works?

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“But that’s F1 these days, and something must change”.

Kimi Raikkonen