“I was obviously pushing to get past but I wasn’t desperate to get past,” said Vettel.

“The gap was there, I had the inside. As soon as he realises somebody is close or next to him, he tries to push when you shouldn’t push anymore.”

Verstappen had already incurred a five-second penalty after nudging Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari off the track.

“I knew he had a penalty,” insisted Vettel. “But I also felt that we were faster. For me, the gap was there — otherwise I wouldn’t do it.

“I got through the whole field without any trouble,” added the former world champion.

“It’s normal that it sometimes gets close but you need to always give the space and in that case I couldn’t go anywhere and then we touched.”

Verstappen saw it differently, sniffing: “He could have been a bit more careful.”