Verstappen on incidents with Hamilton: 'Has nothing to do with sprint race'

Sky Sports ask Verstappen about the first corner in Mexico. "Lewis was on the inside so I don't think Valtteri could've done more than he did. He didn't want to touch Lewis so it's normal the guy in the middle backs out", he begins.

"Valtteri has always been a really nice guy, a really good teammate player, I knew that Valtteri is not going to fight Lewis. The only natural thing from Valtteri to do is to back out."

'Has nothing to do with sprint race'

Verstappen is looking forward to Brazil, but can only judge the pace of Red Bull and Mercedes after Friday's sessions. "We should be alright. I always find it difficult on the Thursday to really judge anything. We just have to start driving first. We first have to get out there, it's all a bit limited with sprint qualifying. I'm looking forward to it, it's been good to us in the past. But I know it's not going to be like Mexico just because of the altitude change but that's how it's been all year."

In the previous two races, Verstappen crashed out the day after the sprint race due to a collision with Lewis Hamilton. "I don't think that's sprint qualifying related", he says. The Dutchman has a clear goal in mind. "We need to be first and second, try to score as much points as possible. That's the target from the teams point of view."