Heading into the La Source hairpin from the race start was never going to be a pretty sight. If Spa 2012 and Spa 2018 were any proof, the first corner on the first lap always takes casualties. This time, the first corner victims were Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.
Speaking about the incident afterwards, Raikkonen revealed that he had no idea that Max was behind him. He himself was on two wheels after the impact and there was a fair amount of damage upon landing.
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When it was suggested that he had plenty of space on the left, Kimi Raikkonen once again reiterated that he didn’t see Verstappen. However, he did have Valtteri Bottas right in front of him, so he had to slow down.
“After [the crash] it was almost pointless to be out there,” the veteran Finn admitted to the F1 website. “Obviously we stayed there just in case something weird happened but we had such big damage to the floor. It was a shame, the car would have been good, but what can you do?”
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen also gave his account of the incident. He said, “I had a poor start, I don’t really know why,” commented Verstappen. “We’ll look into that. I just braked maybe a little later than the two cars ahead of me, but for me it was all working quite well.
“But I guess Kimi didn’t expect me to be there anymore so he did his normal line and we just touched. The track rod was broken after that so that’s why I went straight on at Eau Rouge. That’s racing, these things can happen. I don’t think you can blame anyone,”
