Hamilton drove into me - Verstappen

Max Verstappen laid the blame at Lewis Hamilton's door after he had to retire in the early stages from the Bahrain Grand Prix. Hamilton made contact with the left-rear tyre of Verstappen's Red Bull, causing a puncture which damaged his car too much to continue.

Red Bull's misery was compounded by Daniel Ricciardo's retirement after just one lap due to a complete electrical failure.

Verstappen was fighting from 15th on the grid after a crash in qualifying and had made superb progress on the opening lap, before nipping past Hamilton at turn one to move into the top 10.

However, he made slight contact with Hamilton's front wing, which would end his race prematurely.

"I had a good run onto the straight, going through the inside and of course you try and squeeze each other a bit," Verstappen said.

After investigation, a suspected electrical engine issue put pay to Daniel's #BahrainGP, while Max was forced to retire after sustaining too much damage from his early puncture ????

Safe to say China can't come soon enough... pic.twitter.com/HWAoDUI8GH — Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 8, 2018

"He [Hamilton] drove into my rear tyre."

Ricciardo had earlier pulled up lame, replays showing his car had completely switched off, denying the Australian the chance of fighting among the Ferraris and Mercedes from fourth on the grid.

"Just power, everything switched off. It was as if I'd turned the car off myself, no warning it just turned off.

"It was a quick death, not slow and painful. I have two hours of energy stored up in me and I don't know what to do with it now."