Kimi Raikkonen slams Max Verstappen... but Toto Wolff labels him 'refreshing'

Verstappen and Raikkonen collided at Turn 1 at the start of the race as Sebastian Vettel turned across the two drivers fighting for position. While Raikkonen did not blame the Red Bull youngster for that incident, he says a late change of line at high speed later in the race was dangerous and should have been penalised.

"In the first corner I think Seb didn’t see a car inside me and expected me to run in tightly, but I couldn’t," Raikkonen said. "Unfortunately when he turned in tightly I had nowhere to go and he touched my front wheel. It was obviously not ideal for the team but that’s what happened.

"The other thing… I’m completely fine with good, hard racing but I had to back off and even brake on the run down to Turn 5, still on the straight, when I had made my move… when I have to brake not to hit somebody, as [Verstappen] moved afterwards, something is not correct.

"That, in my view, is completely not correct but obviously, for whatever reason, the stewards think it’s OK.

"It will be interesting to see when something will happen who’s to blame… Like I said, I’m fine with good racing and hard battles but in that situation it was not correct, in my view."

And Raikkonen says just telling Verstappen might not change his driving, but hopes it doesn't take a big crash to make the Dutchman listen to the comments.

"Obviously there are always different opinions from everybody. It doesn’t change an awful lot, maybe he needs an accident before things become clearer to everybody, but hopefully not, because it can be a bit bad for somebody. And obviously nobody wants to see anybody get hurt.

"Like I said, I’m fine with racing and fighting hard, but something like that should not be correct, in my view. But there are always different opinions from different people, so let’s see."

The Dutch driver himself was utterly unapologetic about the incident, accusing Raikkonen of "moaning".

"Of course the start wasn’t great but from there I dived up the inside, I didn’t lock a wheel so I was easily making the corner but they just kept squeezing me," Verstappen said.

"At one point I was on the inside, Kimi was again squeezing me and Sebastian just turned in on both of us."

Asked for his thoughts on Raikkonen's comments, Vertsappen pulled no punches:

"It’s ridiculous. It’s good television if somebody is moaning," he said, before going on to deny suggestions that he's being too aggressive.

"I think that’s a big lie. I’m just defending my position and if somebody doesn't like it it’s his own problem.”

The stewards took no action after the incident - and given that Vettel rather than the Dutchman was the first to make contact with another car, that's hardly surprising.

Quite simply, there's always carnage at Turn 1 after the start of a grand prix at Spa. It's as much a part of the circus as watching cars tussle their way around Eau Rouge or the Bus Stop. This was a racing incident, and while it was somewhat reckless it's pretty much impossible to apportion blame.

Indeed, it made for a thrilling start to the race - as Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said.

"He is refreshing for me. He is a young boy I like a lot," said Wolff.

"He comes in here with no fear, no respect, puts the elbows out. It reminds me of the great ones - it reminds me of Lewis [Hamilton], of Ayrton Senna.

"You can see that some guys are starting to think twice about how to overtake him. Until now, all that has proven he is on the right track...

"I just fear it might end up in the wall heavily one day. It is refreshing but dangerous."