Speaking with the media ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen had a notably testy interview with Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz.

But he wasn’t defending his antics at the Spanish Grand Prix, but rather Steven Knowles’ call for him to give a position back to George Russell that ultimately led to Verstappen’s 10-second race penalty and looming race ban.

Max Verstappen: ‘Well, you named him’

Much has been said about Verstappen’s antics at the Barcelona circuit but the gist is, in the midst of a moment that he concedes was “not right”, he accelerated and crashed into George Russell as everyone including the Red Bull pit wall believed he was yielding to the Mercedes driver to avoid a penalty for gaining an advantage off the track.

Racing against Russell for position after a late-race Safety Car, Verstappen and the Mercedes driver bounced off one another with the reigning World Champion going down the escape road at Turn 1 and staying ahead.

Red Bull, guided by Knowles, told him to give the position back to the Briton.

But in a moment of, well only Verstappen can truly put the words to that, he seemed to oblige into Turn 5 before accelerating as Russell went around the outside, and crashed into him.

Verstappen was given a 10-second penalty and three penalty points for his antics but rubbing salt into the wounds, the stewards ruled they had no issue with Verstappen and Russell’s initial clashing, meaning he never had to give the position back to the Briton.

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But while Verstappen did concede in the cold light of Monday morning that his second clash with Russell was “not right”, he will not have anyone point the finger at senior strategist Knowles as the catalyst.

He called Sky F1’s pit lane reporter Kravitz into line over even the mere hint of that.

Kravitz: “So just a question about going forward the negotiation with the stewards or race director on whether places should be given back, or, or, or what.

“Since Jonathan Wheatley went, obviously you have Steven Knowles who is doing it.

“I assume it was him who told ‘GP’ to tell you to give the place back to George, which wasn’t the right call. The stewards later confirmed that.

“How are you working that out with him?

“Obviously, he’s not been in the job too long since Jonathan’s gone to Sauber. How are you working that out that same situation doesn’t happen again?”

Verstappen: “I think it’s not really nice to try single out a person to be honest, because that’s never the case.

“I think we just look at it as a team. What we always can do better, and that’s also how we look at it in Barcelona. But it’s not fair to now single out one single person.”

Kravitz: “I don’t think I’m singling him out, I just named him…”

Verstappen: “Well, you named him.”

Kravitz: “I just named who he was. Jonathan Wheatley is obviously a well-known guy, I wasn’t saying it was Stephen Knowles his fault.”

Verstappen: “But you mentioned him.”

Kravitz: “Jonathan Wheatley was a well-known guy, he was your rules guy. Now he [Knowles] is the new guy.”

Verstappen: “So we’re talking about him, your singling him out.”

Kravitz: “OK, but he’s on the pit wall. He’s a fairly…”

Verstappen: “I do not need to discuss that anyway here.

“If we ever look at things that we can do better, we do that like every other team. But I’m not going stand here in front of the camera and say who was at fault exactly.”

Kravitz: “I wasn’t asking…”

Verstappen: “We all live and learn.”

Kravitz: “I wasn’t asking you to do that, just to be clear. I was asking how you… live and learn. Thank you, I think you answered it.”

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