Rustic duel between Hamilton and Verstappen
At Monza the slipstreams are very important, even more so to fight against a Mercedes that has clearly improved at the engine level: Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton know this very well, who, to compete for the tow of Charles Leclerc, are protagonists of a very heated duel in Free Practice 3.
Read more Forget the ‘GP2 Engine’, Verstappen’s fury against Red Bull: “Less power than a Fiat Punto”
The sparks between the two arise in the final minutes of the session, at the entrance of the Ascari (although the international broadcast only showed the second part of the replay), with Hamilton trying to overtake Verstappen on the warm-up lap. The Dutchman does not give in and stays ahead, then looking several times in the mirrors on the straight leading to Alboreto to make sure the Ferrari driver does not try the overtake again.
At the last second, however, Hamilton throws himself inside Alboreto. Verstappen manages to line up alongside him on the full straight with a sarcastic thumbs up and brakes very sharply at the Prima Variante, effectively blocking the Ferrari driver: “He caused it all,” justifies the Red Bull driver.
The video of the duel between Verstappen and Hamilton
Here is the video of the final part of the clash, judged with a “No further action” by the race stewards.
Max and Lewis going wheel to wheel down the main straight 😮#F1 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/xrTXkrvVqg
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 5, 2026
In the 2021 GP, right at the Prima Variante, the two came to a clash that later became iconic, with both in the gravel and Verstappen even “parked” on top of the British driver’s Mercedes.
