Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas still disagree over who was to blame for their collision at the Russian Grand Prix.
On the final lap of the Sochi race Raikkonen was behind Bottas in the fight for the final spot on the podium when he attempted an optimistic lunge down the inside of Turn 4. Raikkonen speared into Bottas' sidepod, taking the Williams driver out of the race, but was able to recover to finish fifth, only for the stewards to demote him to eighth post-race as punishment for the collision.
Raikkonen later insisted his move was not "something completely stupid" and questioned whether Bottas had seen him when he turned in, something he reiterated ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix.
"Well it hasn't changed," Raikkonen said about his opinion of the crash two weeks later. "Obviously there was some discussions and penalties given to me but I still would do it again tomorrow, that doesn't change the story. Unfortunately we came together at the end and we both lost a bit but that's life, that's racing. I don't feel bad about it and if somebody does its up to them, its okay for me. I would still do the same thing next time and maybe it goes better."
Bottas, sitting behind Raikkonen in the press conference, was then asked his view of the crash and insisted he had not changed his opinion that his fellow Finn was to blame.
"For me it's the same," Bottas said. "Obviously it was a good weekend until the last lap, so of course disappointing to lose the points, my opinion hasn't changed so I wouldn't do anything different. It's now history so I'm 100 percent ready to move on."
After the race Raikkonen had defended the move by pointing to an earlier pass on Bottas at the same part of the track. Bottas suggested that the end result of Raikkonen's second attempt suggested he had been overly optimistic.
"From my point of view the first one was quite different, it was much more clear that he could do it and of course as a driver you're not going to leave the door open two times. For me it was a different kind of situation, as we saw from the result..."
Raikkonen then responded by saying there was nothing he could do once he had committed to the move and suggested fans prefer to see drivers attempting overtakes than sitting behind another car.
"I saw it in the end but once you decide to go ... I tried to brake and turn in as much as I can but there's no way to avoid it. What can you do? Once you go there you do it or not. Once I saw that he was coming, maybe he didn't see me but I tried to slow down and turn in but in the end if there's no space there's no space we're going to collide.
"Unfortunate thing but it's a part of racing and you get penalised sometimes, sometimes not. We are here to race and it's pointless to cry afterwards and I'm sure the people like it more like that than just following each other."