Sky Sports F1 reporter speaks out after feisty interview with Max Verstappen goes viral

A Sky Sports legend involved in a fiery interview with Formula One champion Max Verstappen has spoken out about the incident.

Following a one week break, Formula One returns this weekend for the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Heading into the race, fans will be eager to watch reigning champion Verstappen, after the Red Bull driver was involved in a highly controversial moment with rival George Russell at the previous race in Barcelona.

The Dutchman was later handed a ten second penalty for the incident, and could face a race ban if he receives another penalty in the next two races.

Of course, members of the media were keen to speak to Verstappen about the incident and his potential ban ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, but Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz has revealed that the Red Bull star was not happy when asked about it in a fiery interview.

Verstappen crashed into Russell on lap 62 of the Spanish GP (Image: F1TV)

According to Kravitz, Verstappen clearly wasn't responding well to questions about his driving style and so, the Sky Sports journalist instead decided to speak with the reigning champion a recent change within the team.

Following the departure of Jonathan Wheatley, Stephen Knowles has taken the role of the team's regulations expert, and Kravitz decided to ask Verstappen if this could lead to a change in approach for Canada.

“He wasn’t in a particularly receptive mood about [the George Russell incident], so I thought I’d go with a question about the team mistake that led to that message in error to give the place back to Russell,” Kravitz explained on an episode of his ‘Podbook’.

“I asked him a question that I thought was going to be on his side and understanding his annoyance that set that whole fateful minute and a half off in the first place.

“I said to him, ‘What are you going to be doing to improve the dialogue with your rules man – a guy called Stephen Knowles, who’s taken over from Jonathan Wheatley – to make sure that doesn’t happen again?’."

Max Verstappen spoke with the media ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. (Image: Getty)

However, Kravitz went on to explain that this only frustrated Verstappen even more, forcing the reporter to end the interview early.

Kravitz revealed: “Max either misunderstood it by accident, or took a rather over-negative interpretation of what I was saying. He said, ‘I don’t think it’s fair for you to single somebody out. I would never single somebody out for criticism in the team’.

“What was I meant to do? Was I meant to say an ‘unnamed team representative that deals with the rules’? I said ‘I’m just not here to say it was Stephen Knowles wasn’t it, let’s blame him’.

“And then he just wouldn’t accept it. He just said, ‘Well, I think it’s not nice of you to do that’, at which point we ended the interview.”