Max Verstappen points accusing finger at Ferrari after Lewis Hamilton incident

Max Verstappen has blamed Ferrari for his incident with Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, not the seven-time world champion. 

Hamilton and Verstappen have to visit the stewards following qualifying after the Briton was judged to have impeded the Dutchman at Massenet in Q1. 

The Ferrari driver was told by his team that Verstappen behind was driving slowly, when in fact the reigning world champion was on a hot lap. 

It led to a close moment between the duo, with Hamilton having been cruising on the racing line which forced Verstappen to go wide. 

Hamilton immediately complained over the radio, and apologised to his 2021 rival straight after qualifying.

Despite the initial scare and frustration of the incident, Verstappen has pointed the blame at Ferrari rather than Hamilton.

"Of course, at the time, you see the car blocking you, and when you're there in high speed, it's quite, I would say, it's not nice," explained Verstappen. 

"But then I saw immediately that the team told him that I was driving slow whilst I was clearly driving fast. So it's not Lewis' fault. I quickly chatted to Lewis already about it. 

"Yeah, it's very simple. But of course, it can't happen. But that's the team's mistake."

Verstappen expects Hamilton penalty

Despite Verstappen not judging Hamilton to be at fault, he does expect the 40-year-old to receive a penalty.

"Of course, I know that it's not his fault, but I even got a one-place grid penalty for not even impeding on a fast lap," Verstappen told select media, including RacingNews365. 

"So, yeah, if you get away with that, I'm really surprised. It's not like I'm trying to get Lewis a penalty. It's just the precedent of what they have been using in the stewards room. 

"I know it's the team's fault, clearly, because Lewis is normally always quite correct with these things, like moving out of the way, and no one really wants to impede anyone on purpose. 

"So, yeah, this was just, yeah, unfortunate, but it happened."