General
Latifi helps Verstappen win the F1 title: 'Wasn't my intension'
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen should send a Christmas card to Nicholas Latifi. The Williams driver caused a safety car to be activated five laps before the end of the race after he crashed hard into the crash barrier. The Canadian driver regrets the DNF in the last race of the year and states that it was not his intention to help Verstappen in a seat in Abu Dhabi.
"I went off the track. We were fighting side by side. I mean, he kind of forced me to the outside, but I think it's fair racing. We don't have to dwell on that for too long, but I got outside the track and the tires were very dirty," said Latifi, who got on the dirt and then lost control of his car. "This was definitely not how I intended to end the season. My apologies to the team for that."
Not Latifi's intention
The safety car allowed Verstappen to make a free pit stop for new softs and then to catch up with Lewis Hamilton. Race director Michael Masi decided to race one more lap and Verstappen took his first world championship. Latifi did not crash on purpose. "I don't know how the race unfolded beforehand, but obviously it created an opportunity at the end. That was not my intention." In fact, Latifi had not wanted to play such a big part in the world championship apotheosis between Verestappen and Hamilton at all.
Christian Horner already told Sky Sports immediately after the race that the 26-year-old driver will not be shy of Red Bull for the rest of his life. The team boss of the Austrian formation winked that he is going to supply Latifi with cans of Red Bull for the rest of his life.