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Red Bull admits Verstappen should have stopped Baku crash with Ricciardo

12:20, 21 Jan 2019

byJake Williams-Smith

The high profile crash between Red Bull teammates Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo at the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix led to a lot of finger-pointing in both directions but Dr Helmut Marko has admitted that Verstappen could have avoided the incident.

After a number of laps fighting between each other and pitstop strategy putting a frustrated Ricciardo back behind his teammate, the two had already set the tone of the battle and no quarter was given. But they finally came to blows in spectacular fashion at turn one.

Although it was Ricciardo who went into the back of Verstappen, Marko believes that the Dutchman should have lived to fight another day and let Ricciardo go.

"Verstappen could have avoided the accident, since Ricciardo was too fast," he explained to Motorsport.com.

"He had not made the turn. He should have used the exit strip. Max should have gone to the side. But instead we got a scandal.

"Verstappen told us that his tyres were ready. His lap time had just dropped by more than three-quarters of a second.

"Then Verstappen got the signal to come in and suddenly he drove two green sectors! With tyres that, according to what he had said earlier, were at their end."

At the time, both drivers were instructed to share equal blame to avoid a media frenzy however things could get tasty on track between the pair in 2019 with Ricciardo's switch to Renault meaning the gloves are off and leaving the Australian with a point to prove against his rival.