The incredible clash between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen did not fail to make the two actors speak this Sunday after the Italian GP. The race marshals, they held the Batavian responsible.
Stupor at Monza, where the two main roles of the championship, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, spoiled their Italian Grand Prix this Sunday by hanging on at halfway. As he left the pits behind the wheel of his Mercedes, the Briton closed the door to his rival, who stubbornly took control of his Red Bull at the start of the chicane. Result: an inevitable collision and two single-seaters in the gravel, one placed on top of the other …
« We knew it would be tight in turn 1. He moved to the left, it sent me to the green zone and I just continued to take the outside., explains Verstappen on the Canal + antenna. He continued to push me to the left and I had no more room, I had to switch to the vibrator. I think he could leave more room, we could have continued to fight at the exit of turn 2. Unfortunately, it did not happen that way … »
Obviously, Hamilton does not have quite the same version of the facts. ” I know I was ahead in the turn and it ended up like that… It was rather heavy on my head, I felt it (Verstappen’s car, editor’s note). I just took a shower and some anti-inflammatories, says the seven-time world champion. Should we speak with Verstappen? I am open to discussion but I don’t think it will change anything with his approach. »
Verstappen refuses to trade with Hamilton
Anyway, the current leader of the championship does not intend to exchange hot with his counterpart. ” I don’t think it’s a good time to talk to each other. It wouldn’t be right to talk to each other right away … A continuation which promises to be all the more spicy as the race marshals have assumed their responsibilities by designating a culprit in this affair: Max Verstappen. The person concerned in fact received at the beginning of the evening a penalty of three places on the starting grid of the next Grand Prix, in Sochi, Russia (September 26).
From their point of view, the judges of the Dutchman felt that the latter had braked too late in turn 1 to attribute to Hamilton a real desire to bar his passage. In any case, in the images dissected by the race marshals, the nose of the Red Bull has never passed the front wheels of the Mercedes. A finding with serious consequences for Verstappen.
