Lando Norris says "anyone on the grid" would have made the move that led to renewed tension and controversy between the Briton and his McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris slid into Piastri on the exit of the third corner at Marina Bay after a bump with Max Verstappen's Red Bull ahead of him knocked his car sideways.
The incident threatens to derail the harmony that McLaren, through careful, thoughtful and open management, have so far managed to maintain between the two drivers.
Norris trailed Piastri by 25 points before the race, and narrowed that lead by only three points after he finished third behind winner George Russell's Mercedes and Verstappen, with Piastri just behind in fourth.
The Briton insisted he had done nothing wrong in getting past Piastri.
"Anyone on the grid would have done exactly the same thing as I did," he said. "So if you fault me for just putting my car on the inside of a big gap, then you shouldn't be in Formula 1.
"I don't think I did anything wrong. Of course, I misjudged a little bit how close I was to Max, but that's racing.
"Nothing happened otherwise, and I'm sure I still would have ended up ahead of Oscar anyway because I was on the inside and he would have had the dirty side of the track on the outside.
"So, I need to go review it, of course, and see if there was something I could have done better.
"The last thing I want is to make contact with my team-mate, especially because all I get is questions from you guys.
"I'm the one that can't afford anything compared to him. I would put myself at risk just as much if that kind of thing happens. But the FIA obviously thought it was fine, and the team did, too. So, that's it."
Norris denied he had been aggressive with Piastri. "I touched Max," he said, "so I wasn't aggressive on my team-mate."
Piastri was unhappy about the incident. He said over the team radio that the team's decision to do nothing about it was "not fair".
After the race, he was more circumspect, saying he needed to watch the incident before commenting on it further.
"The main thing is the two cars coming together," he said. "It's never what we want, so I'll go and have a look at it in more detail."
The Australian has already been the driver to lose out in at least two controversial situations this year.
In Hungary in August, he was the lead McLaren driver early in the race but Norris was allowed to used a divergent strategy to beat his team-mate, a decision insiders in rival teams have questioned.
And in Italy in September, Piastri was ordered to let Norris back past him for second place after the Briton was delayed by a slow pit stop. Piastri complained that he thought there had been an agreement that a slow pit stop was just a part of racing that had to be accepted, but acquiesced anyway.
Behind the scenes, he was not happy about that situation, and he and the team held talks to resolve it.
But asked after Sunday's race in Singapore whether he had any concerns that Norris may be getting preferential treatment, Piastri said: "No."
Did he think the team had been fair all season?
"Ultimately, yes," Piastri said. "Could things have been better at certain points? Yes, but ultimately it's a learning process with the whole team and I'm very, very happy that the intentions are very well meaning, if that makes sense."
The incident is the second time the McLaren drivers have collided this year, after Norris ran into the back of Piastri while trying to overtake him in Canada in June and had to retire. (BBC)