‘I don’t expect anything less from him’ - Verstappen aims critical dig at Wolff

Wolff fiercely defended organisers of F1’s newest race after Thursday’s opening practice session was cancelled after a loose manhole cover badly damaged Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine. 

In a remarkable rant, the Mercedes boss raged at a journalist for suggesting the incident was a “black eye” for the sport. 

Wolff described the damage to Sainz’s car as a “shame” but Verstappen reckons he would have reacted very differently had one of his cars been involved. 

“That is true of course, that it happened before, but you’re supposed to learn from that,” the triple world champion told Viaplay. 

“You know that when you go to a street circuit, such things could cause problems. So you should be prepared for that.

“And I think if it was his car, he would have spoken differently. But I don’t expect anything less from him.

“We would have been very angry too, like Ferrari. Absolutely, the entire car is ruined. Carlos also said that he didn’t feel his legs for a couple of seconds, so the accident could have been a lot worse.”

In the post-qualifying press conference, Verstappen called for rule changes and labelled Sainz’s 10-place grid penalty as “very harsh”. 

It is not the first time Verstappen and Wolff have clashed by having polar opposite views this season. 

Verstappen previously shrugged off Wolff’s dismissive comments about his record winning streak after the Austrian suggested the historic feat was simply “for Wikipedia” following September’s Italian Grand Prix.

Ahead of the following race in Singapore, the Dutchman retorted: "No, I'm not disappointed in that. 

"I mean they had a pretty s*** race, so probably he was still p***** off with their performance."