Sao paulo, October 19: Force India driver Adrian Sutil blasted Toyota’s Jarno Trulli as “stupid” after the two men were involved in a dramatic first lap collison at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Sutil had started in third place on the grid at Interlagos, but his race was quickly over after Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen went past him before the Finn clipped the Red Bull of race winner Mark Webber.
“The start was fine, I lost one position as Kimi overtook me on the outside. It was fine for the next corner but then Kimi hit Webber and lost his front wing,” explained Sutil.
“I was following him through the corner but then suddenly I got hit in the rear and lost control of the car. Trulli was there on the outside trying to go round.
“It was a really stupid maneouvre as there was no space and I couldn’t see him at all. At that point it wasn’t worth it and it ended my race far too early on as I went over into the gravel.
“Jarno was furious and said it was my mistake but I just told him what had happened to me. But it’s over and now he’s just got to deal with it.”
Not surprisingly, Trulli saw the incident differently and sprinted angrily to confront Sutil at the side of the track.
“I am extremely frustrated by what happened because I had a very good chance to challenge for the podium,” said the Toyota driver.
“On the first lap Sutil was very slow through turn four because he was fighting with Raikkonen.
“He was on the inside so I took the outside line but he kept pushing me wider and wider. In the end I was on the grass and had no control of the car so I crashed into the wall at high speed. I think there was enough space for both of us to get around the corner.”
—Agencies