A miscommunication is being blamed for the incident that saw Kiwi Brendon Hartley and Toro Rosso teammate Pierre Gasly come together at the Chinese Grand Prix last weekend.
The contact saw Gasly handed a 10 second time penalty and added insult to injury for the Kiwi, who struggled on the wrong strategy throughout the race before retiring due to a gearbox problem.
"It was clearly a bit of miscommunication," Hartley said.
"We switched positions on the first stint as well because I was struggling on the ultrasofts, I let him by on the exit of Turn 14 and the second time I was asked, I planned to do the same.
"But my feeling is he must have thought that I was opening the door on the entry, which was not the case."
