Rivals at odds over who caused first-lap crash in Saudi Arabian GP

Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly have both refused to accept the blame for causing a race-ending crash for each driver in Jeddah.

Tsunoda’s Red Bull made contact with the Alpine of Gasly at Turn 4 on the opening lap of the race.

It was one of a series of exciting manoeuvres on lap one, with race winner Oscar Piastri tangling with Max Verstappen at the front, earning the Dutchman a five-second time penalty.

But it was the other Red Bull of Tsunoda that banged wheels with Gasly before both were sent spinning into the barriers.

Tsunoda said: “It’s hard to blame either me or Pierre. I’ve done as much as I can to avoid it.

“I was fully in control in terms of speed and I was not, like, almost crashing into the car in front, which was Carlos [Sainz].

“I was fully in control and I tried to avoid as much as I can, to not hit Pierre, especially that probably it is the most-tight corner of this track.

“It is a shame how it ended up. You could say there was space but from my point of view I had no space and I tried to slow down to avoid it.”

Meanwhile Gasly, who was seventh last time out in Bahrain in a positive result for the Frenchman, said he was also not to blame.

He said: “There’s no need to say too much about it. I know him. It was never intentional but on my side, I had a good line coming into Turn 4, I could brake quite late and try and leave as much space as I could on the outside of Turn 4.

“So I already have the car pass the white line. I had to keep my two wheels inside the track to make sure the pass was done.

“I mean, at the end of the day, it’s a tiny touch, but it’s just a shame it’s put a stop to both of our races.”