Max Verstappen has hit back at criticism from Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel following their first-corner collision at Spa, claiming the Ferrari duo should be "ashamed".
Verstappen's front wing collided with the right-front tyre of Raikkonen as they battled for second place at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix, the impact leading the Finn to collide with team-mate Vettel, who spun as a result of the contact.
Raikkonen was left with a puncture and all three cars had to stop at the end of the opening lap to repair damage.
The driving of Red Bull's Verstappen was in the spotlight throughout the race, with Raikkonen angered by an incident on the kemmel straight, where he had to back off following a late defensive move by the Dutch teenager.
Raikkonen claimed Verstappen's driving will inevitably lead to a massive accident, but the 18-year-old — who attempted to squeeze down the inside at the first corner — vehemently defended his actions at turn one and during the rest of the race.
"I think they should be ashamed to cause a crash like that with their amount of experience and then complain about me," Verstappen said.
"Then they don't have to make a drama about what happened afterwards. They have to understand I'm not happy with them screwing up my entire race.
"There was room for three cars [at turn one] When I got alongside Kimi, he started squeezing me. If Vettel hadn't turned in and left one more metre of room, we would have all gotten through," said the Red Bull driver.
"On the video you can clearly see when Vettel turns in, he drives into Raikkonen. And then Kimi's car bumps into mine. If they screw up my race, I'm not going to make it easy for them. I think they should understand that.
"I'm not going to say: 'come on through'. But all that happened after turn one. If turn one hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been so aggressive and pushed Raikkonen out like that," concluded Verstappen.
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