Max Verstappen believes he has "the wrong passport to be complaining" after the Lando Norris US Grand Prix controversy.
The lap 52 incident and the resulting five-second time penalty for Norris have been the major topic in F1 since the Austin race, with F1's racing guidelines coming under scrutiny.
McLaren has since lodged a right of review protest into the time penalty, which will be heard on Friday in Mexico, with the team believing Norris was ahead at the apex of Turn 12, thus meaning Verstappen forced him wide and should have received a sanction - as George Russell did for forcing Valtteri Bottas wide earlier in the race.
Reflecting on the incident, Verstappen was proud of his defence, but felt he had the wrong passport to be complaining about the incident.
"First of all, I didn't really expect that I could keep him behind me, because they were a lot faster," the Dutchman told Viaplay.
"I didn't have any grip at all, but I did everything I could and in the end, we finished ahead of him of course with that penalty, so we can't complain.
"No actually, but I have the wrong passport, it is of the wrong country to be complaining.
When pushed by Viaplay if he was referring to not having a British passport, Verstappen confirmed so.
"In that area, yes. I am very happy with my passport," he said.
"But in that area, I should have had a different passport apparently."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they look back on the US GP and look ahead to this weekend's race in Mexico City. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris' Turn 12 incident is a key talking point, as is the narrative change in both F1 championships.
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BeniHana
Ouch! Why bring passports into this? No need and this is beginning to become a bloody mess which requires mouths to be shut.
jeff-wallace#70923
Well others have not so far, so why should Max. It would be nice if they all would let it go and just race, but egos just won't let that happen.
BeniHana
Very true! Sad! But true.