George Russell absolved Max Verstappen of blame over the collision which cost both the Dutchman and Lando Norris victory at the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen led comfortably for most of the Austrian Grand Prix but a slow pit stop put Norris in his rear view mirrors. And the Briton fought tooth and nail to get past the Red Bull, growing ever more frustrated with the way his rival was defending.
Norris accused Verstappen of moving under braking, which is against the rules, several times. In the end, they collided at turn three and both picked up punctures which forced them into the pit lane and left the door wide open for Russell to take full advantage.
The Briton secured Mercedes' first race win since his own maiden victory in the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. And, speaking afterwards, reflected on the incident which allowed him to do that.
Verstappen got a 10-second time penalty from the stewards who felt the Dutchman was the one at fault for causing the collision. But Russell saw things differently and said: "Seeing the incident back, it was no-one's fault. It was just one of those things, that's racing sometimes. They both deserve to be on the podium, but oh well, it happens."
Verstappen also felt that accusations against him of moving under braking were unfair. That was despite Martin Brundle being one of those on Sky Sports who said during the live broadcast that they felt he had gone too far in his defending against Norris.
But the bullish racer insisted: "From the outside, it's hard to see where I brake. In the past, that has always been a bit of a complaint, but now I always move my wheel before I brake and then brake in a straight line. That's always easy to say from the outside, that I was moving under braking, but I think the guy in the car knows best what he's doing."
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The Red Bull driver also felt Norris had gone over the limit himself and added: "I felt like sometimes he divebombed, he's so late on the brakes that one time he went straight on and one time I had to go around the sausage kerb, otherwise we would have touched as well."
Norris, though, felt his rival was purely to blame and lamented: "I'm disappointed, nothing more than that, honestly. I was looking forward to a strong, fair battle, but I wouldn't say that's what it was in the end. It was a tough one to take. It was a mistake-free race from my side and I felt like I did a good job, but I got taken out of the race.
"There's a rule, you're not allowed to react to the other driver [under braking]. That's what he did, three times out of three. Two times I managed to avoid it, not lock up and run into him, and the third time he just ran into me. He ruined his own race just as he ruined mine, and there was nothing more I could do. I did my best and it was good enough, but it got ruined, not my own fault."