Max Verstappen has explained his crash with Lando Norris after the two men collided at the Austrian Grand Prix, insisting he shouldn't be held responsible.
Norris attempted to round his F1 rival but was unsuccessful, with the McLaren star consequently forced to withdraw on the 66th lap.
Norris has said he will 'lose respect' for Verstappen if he doesn't front up and take the blame.
But the Red Bull star insists it wasn't his fault, telling Sky Sports: "I mean of course from the outside, it's hard to see how I break, now I always move my wheel before my break and then you break in a straight line.
Max Verstappen has explained his crash with Lando Norris after the two men collided at the Austrian Grand Prix, insisting he shouldn't be held responsible
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"I think the guy in the car knows best. Everyone can have their own opinion, from the outside its easier to judge its what happens."
He added: "[Norris'] His dive bombs, he's so late on the breaks, I think it’s the shape of the corner that provides these issues sometimes.
"It is what it is. It is never nice when it happens.
"I need to look back at why and how we touched of course we will talk about it, its just what happens.
"I've had a lot of battles in my career. The incident is one thing we’ve done wrong from the strategy and pit stop.
"The car was weird, first stint wasn’t bad but got worse and worse. We need to look into the car."
Verstappen was slapped with a 10-second penalty after the collision, with the Red Bull star suffering as George Russell secured victory.
And Christian Horner believes the punishment was 'harsh' on his star driver, insisting it's 'one of those things'.
"It looked like there was enough space up there for Lando," he said.
"He already had the violation with the four strikes on track limits, but it's one of those things. We will bounce back next weekend.
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"You've got hard racers and I think that Lando was getting his elbows out, and there had been contact before with them, but in the end it cost both of them.
"I thought the penalty was harsh, that's racing sometimes."
Norris, meanwhile, said he was 'disappointed' after being forced to withdraw - with the McLaren star insisting he performed to a high standard.
"I don't know, disappointed, nothing more than that," he said.
"Today was a good race, I looked forward to a strong fair battle but I wouldn't say that's what it was in the end.
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Max Verstappen and Lando Norris crashed at the Austrian Grand Prix
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"It's a tough one to take. It's a mistake-free race from my side and I feel I did a good job, so nothing more than that.
"There's a rule. You're not allowed to react, you're the driver, what's what he did three times out of three.
"Two times I managed to avoid that, yeah... not going to run into it then the third time he ran into me.
George Russell was able to capitalise on the crash between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix
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"I'm trying to enjoy my race, he was clearly a lot slower in the end. He ruined his own race as well as mine.
"Nothing more I can do. I did my best.
"I was good enough but it got ruined through not my own fault."
