Verstappen to blame for Baku crash - Lauda

Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda says Max Verstappen is mostly to blame for the crash with Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Both Red Bull and the FIA deemed that both drivers were equally to blame for the incident that ended their races.

Ricciardo and Verstappen spent the majority of the Baku race in close quarters, the Australian getting past his team-mate at the third time of asking, only for Verstappen to emerge ahead once again after their pit-stops.

The terminal move came shortly after as Ricciardo tried to dive down the inside of turn one, only for Verstappen to shut the door, pitching them into each other and out of the race.

Both drivers apologised to the team, while refraining from pointing the finger at each other, but Lauda noted Verstappen's swerving defence as they key factor. The Austrian has experience of such matters, following Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's collision in Barcelona in 2016.

Asked how he would have responded to the situation, Lauda said: "Go home and cry!

"No, it's a disaster. We had it once.

"For me, it is 70 per cent Verstappen [at fault] and 30 per cent Ricciardo. He was moving on him all the time, where can the poor guy go?"

Lauda also suggested that Ricciardo and Verstappen should be hit in the pocket for the incident, which Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said would be resolved by both drivers apologising to the whole team.

"I would bring them in the office together with Toto [Wolff, team principal] and tell them how much less they will get paid because of the damage they have done," Lauda said.

"Really, we thought about this once but we didn't have to do it."