Martin Brundle was not impressed with Max Verstappen criticising the stewards in Abu Dhabi given he was the one who “ran into other people”.

Verstappen was hit with a 10-second penalty during Sunday’s season-ending Grand Prix for being “wholly at fault” for his Turn 1 crash with Oscar Piastri.

Martin Brundle was not impressed with Max Verstappen

Verstappen got a great launch off the line and thought he had a gap down the inside of the McLaren driver into Turn 1, only to find it wasn’t there when he arrived.

Verstappen clipped Piastri, both drivers pitched into spins that dropped them down the order.

Giving his initial assessment of the accident as he commentated on the race for Sky F1, former F1 driver Brundle said: “Piastri could’ve given him a touch more space, but would have he known he was there? It was a late lunge. Max really didn’t need to do that.

His fellow pundit David Croft added: “When he [Verstappen] says he was all the way up, he wasn’t.”

The stewards agreed that he wasn’t, declaring Verstappen “never got far enough alongside”, and gave him a 10-second time penalty that he served when he pitted for fresh tyres.

The Dutchman was irate and said over the radio: “Could we ask for 20 seconds? Stupid idiots.”

Brundle wasn’t impressed.

“You can’t say that, that’s just not fair – they’re applying the regulations,” said the former F1 driver. “You don’t run into other people, then you won’t get the penalties.”

“I understand the emotions,” Croft said. “I understand that he’s annoyed, but he’s a four-time World Champion. It’s not going to make any difference to his finishing position in the championship, and he was the one that steamed down the inside and made contact with another car.

“Come on Max, you’re bigger than that, better than that.”

Brundle went on to state that Verstappen “understeered wide” when he got to Piastri, but that as “the great Ayrton Senna used to say that if you don’t go for a gap, you are no longer a racing driver.”

Verstappen did later hold up his hand, the Dutchman revealing he apologised to Piastri immediately after the Grand Prix.

“My launch was good and then I tried to grab the inside and I quickly realised, once I committed to it, that the gap was closing and I wanted to try and get out of it, because I didn’t want to naturally, of course, crash with Oscar,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com.

“But unfortunately, we still clipped each other, but I already apologised to Oscar, it is not what you want to happen, and especially not with him. He’s a great guy but it happened, and it is a bit unfortunate.

“The thing was that, when you’re in that position, you’re focusing on the car ahead…you commit. When you start first or second, you never really look behind.

“So I went for it, and then I realised, ‘shit, he doesn’t see me there’. So I was like trying to get out of it, but then we still clipped.”

Verstappen was also given two penalty points on his Super Licence for causing the collision, bringing his tally for a 12-month rolling period to eight.