Marko apologises: 'Was obviously not correct, I'm sorry about that'

Brake test by Verstappen

At the moment that Verstappen wanted to return the lead in the race to Hamilton, the Mercedes driver got confused. Instead of overtaking Verstappen, he stayed behind the Dutchman and drove into the back of him. On the radio, Hamilton spoke of a brake test by Verstappen, prompting Marko to say in front of the cameras that there was no brake test and that the brake pressure remained the same according to the data of the Red Bull engineers. According to Marko, Hamilton had simply misjudged the situation.

Later at the stewards' meeting it became clear that Verstappen did apply his brakes harder when Hamilton was right behind him, which earned the Red Bull driver a ten second time penalty. Marko therefore had to retract his statements. "At the time of the television interviews, I passed on exactly the information I had received from the engineers beforehand," he told F1 Insider. "That was obviously not correct, so I'm sorry for that."

Sad chapter closed

With just one more race to go in Abu Dhabi, where the world title is to be decided, Marko now hopes to put the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix behind him. "Hopefully the sad chapter of Saudi Arabia is now closed. In any case, we are only looking forward. We want to win in Abu Dhabi and thus win the title. We will do everything for that, but we will not start unfair actions."

Marko is hopeful that Verstappen can take the title on his own in Abu Dhabi and beat Hamilton on track. "We already had the pace in Saudi Arabia to keep up with Hamilton. The Yas Marina circuit should suit us better in that respect." Hamilton and Verstappen head to Abu Dhabi with an equal number of points. The driver who finishes ahead will be crowned champion; should both drivers fail to score any points, Verstappen will win. The Dutchman has won one race more this season.