Oliver Bearman said he is “sorry” if he got in the way of Max Verstappen during the Spanish Grand Prix.

With Max Verstappen chasing McLaren’s Lando Norris in P2, and Haas’ Oliver Bearman battling Liam Lawson in the Racing Bulls, these duels merged into one as Norris and Verstappen came up behind to lap the duo.

Bearman ‘sorry’ if he got in the way of Max Verstappen

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Lawson would find just enough space to go down the inside of Bearman at Turn 1, but with Bearman taking to the run-off and following the route back onto the circuit, Norris was now on the scene as he looked to slalom his way through the two cars.

Norris cleared Lawson, but it was not until the approach to Turn 5 that he got past Bearman, with Verstappen also coming through down the inside, waving a hand in anger at the Brit as he did so.

2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg, on Sky F1 commentary duties for the race, reacted: “Yeah, but come on Max! Like, relax, seriously.

“In hindsight, if you would watch this after the race, he would be like, ‘Oh, actually, I need to be grateful to those guys.’

“But in the heat of the moment, it just feels terrible.”

And when asked about the Verstappen frustration by media, including PlanetF1.com, following the race, Bearman extended the olive branch.

Put to him that Verstappen seemed upset, Bearman replied: “Yeah, I’m not sure why. I need to have a look.

“But, I am sorry if I did anything bad to him.

“It’s tough to manage everything that’s going on in the race, and he just went on my inside. I wasn’t trying to do anything bad, of course, but I’m sorry if I held him up.”

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Bearman was given a 10-second time penalty after the stewards adjudged him to have left the track and gained a lasting advantage against Lawson, and it was a verdict which Bearman was struggling to come to terms with.

“I mean, it was a tight battle,” he said. “I feel a bit hard done by to have been given a penalty.

“I felt like I was totally pushed off.”

Opportunity knocked late in the race as Kimi Antonelli’s retirement brought out the Safety Car, but while Bearman bolted on a set of softs, it did little to change his fortunes.

He would be classified P17, the last of the Spanish GP finishers.

“We had a soft tyre at the end, which seemed good, but I couldn’t really do anything with it,” said Bearman.

“Honestly, in straight-line speed, I’ve been struggling a little bit and just couldn’t really fight anyone out there.

“Yeah, a little bit unfortunate that we couldn’t really do much with a new tyre at the end there.”

Overall it has been a decent start to life with Haas for F1 rookie Bearman, who has scored six points across the opening nine rounds.

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