Verstappen says Red Bull should trust him and Ricciardo to race

Max Verstappen says Red Bull should let him and Daniel Ricciardo keep racing, despite their calamitous double DNF at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The pair had suffered several near misses throughout the race in Baku, until Ricciardo ploughed into the back of Verstappen to end their races in an instant.

Having pitted for ultrasoft tyres in fourth and fifth, the hunt was perhaps on for the podium places, until Verstappen shut the door too hard on his team-mate as he dived late down the inside of turn one.

The incident prompted a crazy end to the race, which saw Lewis Hamilton emerge victorious with Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez following in second and third.

Neither of the Red Bull drivers pointed the finger after the race, but both were quick to apologies after perhaps being read the riot act from Christian Horner and Helmut Marko.

"It's disappointing for the team we lost a lot of points today unnecessarily," Verstappen told Sky Sports. "I don't think we need to speak about whose fault it was because we're racing for the team and it's not good for both of us.

"The tow was very strong so as soon as he was in front I was catching up.

"We had similar speed and were always close. It was hard racing but fair - we had a little brush with wheels, in racing it can happen. What happened after is not good.

"This has happened before but we'll learn from it and we have to make sure it does not happen again. Not only for us [to sort it out] we will speak with the team as well to see what we're going to do in the future. I don't think not letting us race is the way forward but well race."

Asked if he was OK with Ricciardo, Verstappen said: "Yeah of course. We're racing drivers, you go for every inch and you're not happy when you collide as team-mates. We spoke immediately after the race."

Ricciardo was similarly contrite after the incident, adding: "We're thankful we're allowed to race especially myself and Max, we love to race as we show and so that's cool.

"We did get close a few times in the race, already touching, so sometimes we were on the limit and unfortunately its ended how it did.

"It's not a nice situation, for the team it's pretty crappy."