- Marussia
Chilton and Bianchi 'move on' from Canada shunt
Max Chilton says he and Marussia team-mate Jules Bianchi have moved on from the incident that took them both out of the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago.
The pair tangled at Turn 4 on the first lap as Chilton lost the rear of the car in the middle of the corner and slid into Bianchi. Chilton maintains that he was not to blame as Bianchi was the one trying a move around the outside, but said the pair have now agreed to put the incident behind them.
"We had a few words [after the race], but I spoke to him this morning and we shook hands and said 'let's move on'. It wasn't meant to be like that, it was accidental. There was nothing malicious, it was just a bad outcome.
"I still stand by my words [at the time]. I was the one that hit him and took him out of the race, but it stems from before that as I had the inside line into a right-hander. It was my corner and he was the one trying to do the overtaking, but it all got a bit close on entry, so I had to take to the kerb. He then realised, gave me room, and that's when the shot appears that everyone sees which makes me look like I went in hot and took him out.
"It was just two drivers racing, a racing incident, which is why I feel like the penalty wasn't truly fair. But at the end of the day I was the one that hit him and ended his race, so that's the way they've looked at it."
The accident brought to an end Chilton's record of finishing every race since the start of his F1 career, which stands at 25.
"A lot of times I said it [the record] wasn't holding me back, but maybe sub-consciously it was. I had a good record, and I was genuinely upset for a couple of days because it's gone, and it was a good thing we had going.
"It's not like I lost the record by one. Tiago had 16, so if I had lost it on the 15th then I would have been gutted, but I smashed the record. It's a good one which is going to stand for a while, and for me now I can race more often. I'm not going to sub-consciously back out of things. If I've the inside line again I'm going to stay there."
Chilton will start three places down on the grid at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix as punishment for causing the incident.
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