Formula 1 2021: Frustrated Max Verstappen 'will never give up' in title race

Budapest: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, whose car was involved in a first lap collision that cost him any chance of victory in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, said he would “keep pushing” in his bid to win the 2021 world championship. The Dutchman was sideswiped on the opening turn of the race in a series of collisions prompted by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and which wiped out his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and three others. The incident came two weeks after his first lap collision with Bottas’ teammate Lewis Hamilton saw him careening off the Silverstone track and out of the British Grand Prix. That collision caused tensions between the two teams to rise with Verstappen accusing Hamilton of “dirty driving” and Red Bull attempting to have the Briton punished beyond the 10-second penalty he received on the day. Verstappen stopped short on Sunday of blaming Bottas, who accepted responsibility and will face a five-place grid penalty at the next race in Belgium at the end of August, but could not help a sly dig. “Again, taken out by a Mercedes, so that’s not what you want…” he said in his post-race interview at the Hungaroring. “I was missing the whole side of my car. And the floor was damaged as well, so almost impossible to drive, to be honest. “I still tried my very best and I still got one point. It’s at least something but it’s not what you want.” Before the British Grand Prix Verstappen had won four of the previous five races and had opened up a 32-point lead over Hamilton at the top of the standings. The last two races, however, have produced just one point allowing Hamilton to overturn that lead to the extent that the seven-time world champion now has an eight-point advantage after 11 races and going into the summer break. “These moments, it doesn’t do anything, it’s just disappointing,” said Verstappen who finished 10th on Sunday but was then promoted to ninth after second-placed Sebastian Vettel was disqualified. “I know that when we go again after the break, I will be there again and I will try my very best. “Of course, I hope my car is going to be competitive but we’ll find out. “It’s a lot of freak moments that cost us a lot of points. Of course they (Mercedes) are very quick but we will never give up. “We have to focus on ourselves, keep pushing and we will see where we end up.”