Verstappen-Hamilton, usual sparks: “If I hadn’t gone off track, Lewis would have hit me”

The ‘usual’ duel

Also on the brand new Madrid track Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton did not fail to add another small chapter to the book of their now ‘historic’ rivalry. Sparks flew immediately, in turn 1, when after a brilliant start by the Ferrari driver the two multiple world champions found themselves side by side. Hamilton attacked on the inside clipping the curb, his SF-26 lost direction for a few moments and widened towards Verstappen’s Red Bull who, in response, cut the ‘S’ sharply then maintained position on the following straight.

What happened next decided, in different ways, the race for both: after a long discussion with the pit wall, Verstappen was convinced to slow down to give up position to Hamilton, who meanwhile had also been overtaken by Antonelli’s Mercedes, which ended up in third position behind Verstappen. The Dutchman initially raged against his race engineer Giampiero Lambiase, who had asked him to slow down and fall behind Hamilton – “mate, what the f*** are you talking about? He would have crashed. But seriously, what are you talking about? If I had stayed on track, I would be out of the race” – but then he complied to avoid a possible penalty.

Meanwhile, however, Hamilton began to have brake problems and so the Dutchman practically had to stop in the middle of the track to let Hamilton catch up, overtake and then be overtaken again by a Hamilton now unable to control his car.

A matter of survival

At the end of the GP Verstappen defended his version of events, reiterating in post-race interviews that if he hadn’t moved cutting the corner, Hamilton would surely have hit him: “Would I have won without that cut and slowing down? No. I would have suffered damage at the start if I had stayed on track, so the win would have been out of the question anyway – Verstappen replied – it’s simple. I just made my move at turn 1, but Lewis tried an overtake and touched the curb; then he suddenly came back on track and that’s why I was forced off track. If I had stayed there, there would definitely have been contact. So my race could have ended already at turn 2 and that’s why, given the current situation, I’m happy with where I am”.

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