Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2021

Hamilton: Pass on “respectful” Leclerc shows how Verstappen move should have gone

2021 British Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton says his pass on Charles Leclerc at Copse, which won him the British Grand Prix, showed how his first-lap move on Max Verstappen should have worked out.

Verstappen and Hamilton tangled at the same corner on lap one, firing the Red Bull into the barriers at high speed. The Mercedes driver was given a 10-second time penalty for the collision, which he served during the race, but was able to catch and pass Leclerc to win.

Hamilton tried to pass Verstappen at the same corner in the previous day’s sprint qualifying race, without success, and said it was on his mind as they headed towards Copse again today.

“We got a good start and I was chasing down Max, similar to yesterday,” he explained. “Obviously I was alongside him into six [Brooklands], but I had to concede. And then I got a great tow down to turn nine [Copse].

“Yesterday I went down the left-hand side and I really regretted not going for the gap that was down the right-hand side. And so I dummied him, moved to the left and then moved to the right for that gap. And I was pretty far up alongside him, but I then could see he wasn’t going to back out. We went into the corner and then we collided.

“Of course that’s never the way that I ever want to win a race or just in general to race but these things do happen. I just hope he’s OK and I look forward to many more races.”

Verstappen was taken to the medical centre and then to hospital for precautionary checks. Hamilton said he intends to check up on his rival.

“I heard that Max is in hospital and and that definitely concerns me. None of us ever want any of us to ever get injured. That’s never my intention and I really hope that he’s okay. I’ll hit him up after this just to check that he’s okay.

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“We live to fight another day. We’ll still be a lot of tough races coming up and we have to learn to strike some balance.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2021
Hamilton said his win “doesn’t feel hollow”
Hamilton rejected Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s criticism of his podium celebration, and denied he had taken a “hollow” win.

“I don’t really have anything to say to Christian. It doesn’t feel hollow. There’s 2,000 people that work incredibly hard in my team – it’s not just about me, naturally.

“I’ve already said that this is not the way of anything that I want to happen in the race. I think it’s important for all of us to take a step back. I’m sure emotions are running high there and I know what it’s like to lose points within a team and be in that position, so I don’t feel any way about it.”

The stewards deemed Hamilton was largely responsible for the collision. “I don’t agree with the stewards,” he said, “but I take my penalty on the chin and get on with my job.

“I’m not going to whine about it. Everyone’s going have a different opinion, I don’t particularly really care what people think.”

Hamilton believes both drivers were partly responsible for the collision. “I would like to think that we should generally grow and learn from these experiences.

“There’s rarely an incident that’s one hundred percent someone’s fault. It’s always a mixture because it’s two people or more, obviously. So I think there’s things that we can both learn.

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“I would say that Max is probably one of the most aggressive drivers here, just from my personal opinion. He does a great job, of course. But I think we have to really try and find the best balance we always can on-track with space and respect between one another so that we can continue racing and have good races without colliding.”

The collision between Hamilton and Verstappen at the start was in contrast to Hamilton’s move on Leclerc at the same corner with three laps to go. The Ferrari driver ran wide as he tried to keep Hamilton behind.

“He was very respectful in terms of leaving a gap,” said Hamilton. “I got to be somewhere alongside him, he knew that I was there, but he stayed committed and just did a wider line and he nearly kept it. And that was really great racing.

“For me, in that moment, I backed out at one point just to make sure that we didn’t come together. But I think it was just a really nice balance and I think that’s really how the racing should go.

“Of course, in a perfect world, that’s what would have happened in the first attempt. But different time, different place, different driver.”

2021 British Grand Prix

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290 comments on “Hamilton: Pass on “respectful” Leclerc shows how Verstappen move should have gone”

  1. This is getting farcical. You got a penalty for this Lewis. Count yourself lucky you still won. Mad guy.

    1. The world has registered your opinion. Let someone else express himself, we all know what you are going to say next.

      1. There are some opinions that are right and some that are wrong.

        The people who “hold the opinion” that the Earth is flat are wrong.

        The people who think that Verstappen is to blame for this accident are wrong.

        This is what happens when a driver has a religious cult following, like Hamilton does. Hamilton could probably do a Suzuka 1990 and his fans would still find a way to blame the other driver.

        Hamilton fans are probably the most delusional and toxic fanbase that has ever graced any sport. I genuinely think that Hamilton wouldn’t receive a fraction of the hate that he does, if his fans knew how to behave themselves.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          19th July 2021, 6:53

          @kingshark They think the world revolves around Hamilton it seems, even to the point of creating entwined narratives like Perez being a terrible driver (not that he’s too good either, but not that far from Bottas) which in turn would make the Red Bull an extremely dominant machine this season and then proving their idol outracing a “struggling” Mercedes. There’s also their imaginary projection of Bottas pushing Hamilton hard as a team-mate, at the same time saying that the Red Bull car was made only for Max and no one in the team is allowed to race him (again deluding themselves about Bottas never being sacrified to benefit Hamilton). Still, in the recent past they were also pretending that Vettel/Ferrari weren’t spiralling down in terms of performance in 2018-19 but actually were dreadful opponents in the title fight. All false supporting narratives for the false big one that Hammy is some kind of god in earth that no one can come close, not even Alonso, let alone Verstappen (two guys who are actually performing better than him right now, with Max but even more Fernando giving him a lesson on how to have racing expertise, consistency and extract the top performance from the car when it matters the most).

        2. this image is worth 1000 words: https://jmp.sh/ZIOVMsZ
          Just look where Lewis is in both cases and you’ll get your answer. (if anything, Max gave more room then Leclerc).

          1. Best comparison photo, shows the stewards were right, but we all make mistakes.

          2. Yeap. In this image you can clearly see Hamilton leaving more space to leclerc than Verstappen. You can also see Leclerc following his line and Verstappen taking a hard right turn on Hamilton changing line.

          3. https://imgur.com/a/NInVRVY

            heres a better composite shot with the trajectory of both drivers
            max is definitely aiming to slam the door mid corner as well.
            yes hamilton ran wider than the leclerc pass but both drivers were playing chicken and none blinked.
            by the time of the collision ham was in the blindspot so max was taking a risk. what if ham had a sudden snap understeer/oversteer mid corner, which could happen. max put his car in a quite risky position as well. Not his fault, but high risk

        3. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
          19th July 2021, 9:21

          @kingshark

          There are some opinions that are right and some that are wrong.

          The people who “hold the opinion” that the Earth is flat are wrong.

          The people who think that Hamilton is to blame for this accident are wrong.

          This is what happens when a driver has a religious cult following, like Verstappen does. Verstappen could probably do a Suzuka 1990 and his fans would still find a way to blame the other driver.

          Verstappen fans are probably the most delusional and toxic fanbase that has ever graced any sport. I genuinely think that Verstappen wouldn’t receive a fraction of the hate that he does, if his fans knew how to behave themselves.

          See? Works both ways, doesn’t it?

          1. Not really. The earth is still a globe and Lewis at fault.
            It was a rookie mistake by Lewis. One of many mistakes this season.

          2. Rodric Ewulf
            19th July 2021, 18:11

            erikje This season Lewis have found trouble for himself in 5 out of 10 races (including the last one in which he caused terminal damage and sent most of the trouble to Max). He crippled his car with damage in the Austrian and Monaco races, activated the brake magic button by mistake in Baku, crashed into the wall at Imola (the original safety car miracle for him this season, already happening twice) and of course the scuffle of yesterday which will be remembered for a long time not as a brilliant victory by a GOAT at home but by a win marred with controversy and lack of sportsmanship. Do you know who currently hold this record of costly incidents this season as well? Tsunoda. With Mazepin on the mix as well. This season Lewis seemed to have reverted to his 2011 looking-like rookie mode, even though he’s obviously way faster than those mentioned above, with so much better quali and race pace, he hasn’t been that better than the rookies this year when the suject is consistency and reliability. Too much ups and downs, stints of brillance filled with unexplainable mistakes for a multiple world champion. I know this truth is difficult to digest, but this is just statistics. All those incidents simply just cannot be erased off, no matter how hard delusional Lewis fans will try.

          3. The stewards have huge amounts of data, videos from loads of different angles, car telemetries plus other info that we are not privy to. They make their INFORMED decision on this. Sure sometimes they may seem a little harsh, sometimes a little lenient depending on the angles they show us on TV or who you support, but let’s face it, the decision will be “about right”. Team principles will always have a moan and try to get the best situation for their team, that’s their job.
            There seems to be a lot of people on here making fleeting judgements and statements based on miniscule tit-bits of information then pretending they are factual? These are just opinions.
            Regardless who you support, I think we can agree that a lot of the Hamilton haters are probably just racist. Some people are that ignorant and stupid, my guess would be that a lot of the opinions on this are fuelled by that and it’s been used as a catalyst/excuse to “have a go” at him. I am white just in case any of you think I am “playing the race-card”.
            Once again though, Hamilton has acted professionally and with sympathy (immediately asking if Max was ok) and being polite and gallant in his responses, and most importantly STILL saying all he needs to say ON THE TRACK.
            If you want to look at facts, watch every race where Lewis and Max have had any battles and see percentage-wise how many times each driver has yielded when side-by-side, happy to see your comments after that. Stato.

        4. Truth is, the earth is flat. The earth is spherical. It’s in one’s reality and identified perspectives. Hamilton has played a good game respectively to Max by creating gaps in the past or holding back to avoid collision. The day he decided to hold his ground, he is slated.

          1. The one in front hold ground. You behind were in sure collision course. Ham clearly wanted to push Ver out of the racing line that was Max’s. It was not a driver mistake: ham move was clearly on purpose: risk/ reward: just a tiny bump in max rear tire… at full speed will do. Ad did. He could’ve killed him.

        5. @kingshark What an odd choice of analogy. There is a whole body of evidence that conclusively states that the Earth is not flat. It is a physical property of the planet. By comparison, the apportioning of “blame” is by definition just an opinion. The first is provable, the second a judgement.

    2. That opening lap is what racing should be. Neither driver giving an inch. Max’s aggression met Lewis’s resolve. Someone had to lose.

      1. @Greenflag

        “Neither driver giving an inch.”
        Max gave Lewis atleast 60 inches to his right.

        To bad for Max Lewis has never been a fair and proper racer, a fact obscured by Lewis having such a dominant car for the past 7 years he didn’t have to proper race anyone bar his incompetent teammates.

        1. Niki you undermine yourself by saying these things. Hamilton has been known, especially during the Vettel period in 17-18 to be a hard but fair racer. The fact you make up this stuff doesn’t help your argument, one in this instance I actually agree with (Hamilton to blame).

          Why is everything so divisive and full of lies these days?

          1. Now he wont be known as fair anymore..

          2. @john-h
            “ especially during the Vettel period in 17-18”
            Lol, the only part in his career you mean.
            Wanna talk 2007-2014 and late 2018 current?
            The guy is a known crasher and well established sore loser.

            You literally undermined your own argument.

          3. @Niki101

            “The guy is a known crasher and well established sore loser.”
            arent you looking at the mirror a bit too much too long?

          4. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
            19th July 2021, 1:34

            @john-h Why is everything so divisive and full of lies these days?

            Unfortunately RF gained a lot of trash from other sites when they pay-walled most of their content.

          5. That much is true @jureo !

          6. @braketurnaccelerate I was wondering what it was lately but now you mention it that makes sense. Apparently I “undermined by own argument” here lol.

        2. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
          19th July 2021, 9:39

          @Niki101 “To[sic] bad for Max Lewis has never been a fair and proper racer”

          Really?

          So, we’ll completely ignore Hamilton being “fair and proper” by going off-track to avoid a collision with Verstappen at Imola, shall we? And we’ll completely ignore Hamilton being “fair and proper” by conceding the first corner to Verstappen to avoid a collision in Barcelona, shall we?

          But the first time Hamilton says, “Sorry Max, I’m not going to roll over for you this time.” he’s suddenly “never been a fair and proper racer.”

          I think you’re being slightly disingenuous here, don’t you?

          1. It seems people have issues with Max overtaking Lewis when he’s really ‘at least halfway alongside) Imola, Spain, Portugal and Silverstone, they feel after four times he earned the right to a corner regardless his position. ‘Max had it coming’.

            Lewis took it on the chin, took out his rival, took 10 sec and won the race…. his fanbase are happy,
            Max had it coming anyways….

            The main issue is the penalty does not fit the crime, Lewis saw no reasons to hold back…ahead or not he wanted to get ahead at any cost….’any cost’ being a 10 sec penalty

        3. he also had 4 car widths to his left to travel in order to not slam the door shut while ham was in his blindspot.

          1. The Mercedes was in the Red Bull’s blind spot? That means the Mercedes was BEHIND. 100% fault on the Mercedes.

      2. Yup, best racing that we’ve seen at the front all season.

      3. Exactly

      4. This is the correct explanation.

      5. @greenflag unstoppable force finally met the immovable object :)

        1. Coventry Climax
          19th July 2021, 21:55

          And it’s the FIA that ‘gave’.
          ot sure though how many people here understand your comment, @mysticus, and my reply to it.

      6. Amen to that!

    3. Exactly .. look back at the pass .. with Leclerc he was on the apex and made a much tighter corner. With Max he missed the apex by 1 meter and oversteered into Max with 300 miles an hour.

      1. He could just slow down. Instead he went like he is only on the track.

        Before the race they’ve been showing some cuts from the pasts, particularly Senna and Prost of 1993.. Look at X4qGYaFw0y4 – that’s how it’s done. If you are not making into the corner you push breaks. Not going straight into your opponents, like they do not exist.

        1. If I am Horner, I tell Perez if the situation presents itself, to take HAM out in a safe area.
          Emphasis on safe.

          1. If I’m Perez, I look at crashgate and record every future conversation with every red bull team member ever again, because if I crash deliberately for my team, they now own my soul. They know as I know that Piquet Jr was drummed out of the sport as the man who crashed. Everyone else involved is safely back in, Piquet was burned. So yes, if you were Horner, you might ask me to cheat for you, and if I were Perez, you’ve just ensured that everything you ever say in my earshot gets fed to the fia, and in some cases, rival teams, in secret.

          2. Will. This is ham’s crashgate. Right in front of you. No need for perez. Toto said it just recently: they are just a max dnf distance…. Coincidence?

      2. Lewis ran out of talent there. Some real British biased comments on these forums here….BLESSED

    4. Someone should have briefed Ham. He hit a guy for the win gave him a 51g crash but still feels aggrieved by the penalty. He got away with it damage free so no matter what happened afterwards Ham and merc were going to have to feel lucky about it. Embarrassing.

      1. You’re right…you should feel embarrassed. Even Christian called Hamilton an 8 time champion…lol. He’s given up already.

    5. Verstappen run across Hamilton ‘s car not the other way round Hamilton kept his car on a straight path & Verstappen turned his wheels into Hamiltons path

      1. Keeping your car on a straight path when you are going through a right hand turn…. Yep, Hamilton kept a straight path and caused the collision.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          19th July 2021, 18:14

          dbHenry Most of those fans not even read the stewards description of the incident, let alone rewatch the scene a couple of times. They dogmatically want to make any excuse that would wash away Lewis’ blame on the incident.

  2. Max created his crash with Lewis. There was no penalty for Lewis.
    Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer agreed with the British driver, insisting he felt the crash was a clear racing incident.
    “I’ve watched it a few times now and to me, if that isn’t a racing incident, nothing is,” he told Sky Sports.
    “We’ve often talked about allowing the drivers to race over the first couple of laps for the benefit of the fans, and I think that’s what happened there.
    “To me it was 50-50 there.
    “Max didn’t have to turn in when he did and Lewis could have been further right, but to me 100 per cent a racing incident.”

    1. Did I see different race? :D

      1. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
        18th July 2021, 20:53

        Szafnauer isn’t exactly known for his common sense. He also kept saying that they didn’t copy the Mercedes last year. In that regard, he fits right in with the other team bosses! :^)

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          18th July 2021, 21:26

          @barryfromdownunder He never said they didn’t copy Mercedes, he clearly said that they legally copied the parts they were allowed to and reverse engineered the rest. The only thing they were penalized for was that they were not allowed to use ONE part which they bought but not used in 2020.

          1. @f1osaurus
            He literally did say they didn’t copy Mercedes and was bragging about his team’s capacity of reverse engineering an F1 car which backfired badly this year when they couldn’t react to a slight regulations change in the floor area the way Mercedes did because they simply didn’t understand the Mercedes concept of low rake cars.

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            18th July 2021, 21:39

            @tifoso1989 You can keep on showing your ignorance on this, but he didn’t he said he didn’t illegally copy the listed parts. Which in their mind they didn’t, but for a technicality of not running one part in 2019. Had they used that part in 2019 they would have had 0 penalty.

          3. @f1osaurus
            You cannot disappoint ! You keep hitting new lows even by your abysmal standard.

          4. F1oSaurus (@)
            18th July 2021, 22:13

            @tifoso1989 Sorry, but you venting your ignorance over and over again does disappoint me. Especially since I have given you the facts several times already.

            The distinction you need to learn to make is that many parts can simply be copied. The body work that Racing Point used was not is not one of those and they where able to prove to the FIA that they didn’t.

            Only one brake duct which they bought for 2019, was not allowed to be used in 2020 because it wasn’t used in 2019. That’s all they were faulted for

            It’s sad that you will just never want to actually understand and keep bleating lies.

    2. In case you don’t realize it, at the back of the Aston Martin car is a Mercedes engine
      With this in mind, what do you expect Otmar Szafnauer to say?

      1. So we can also disregard everything Max and Horner said? If so can we please stop regurgitating his so obviously fake concern for Lewis’ celebrations

    3. So, they asked the guys who’s buying Mercedes stuff?!? Then, objectivity is under serious question.

      1. The reality is that everyone else that I heard on the broadcast agreed it was a racing incident, even those who put more/most of the blame on Hamilton. Case opened, case closed. It was far from egregious. In the end, Max didn’t have to push Hamilton so close to the wall, thereby reducing his angle into that corner, and Max knew that by doing so he though he would get Lewis to back out of the move when Lewis was obviously coming at a faster pace, then Max turned in aggressively when he could have left more space, but he would have been passed which he could not accept. He didn’t leave more space. He turned hard right, which is obvious when looking at the onboards. He paid for it. End of.

    4. @bulgarian

      Yes:

      “The Stewards reviewed video and telemetry evidence,” the stewards said. “Cars 33 [Verstappen] and 44 [Hamilton] entered turn 9 with Car 33 in the lead and Car 44 slightly behind and on the inside.

      “Car 44 was on a line that did not reach the apex of the corner, with room available to the inside.

      “When Car 33 turned into the corner, Car 44 did not avoid contact and the left front of Car 44 contacted the right rear of Car 33. Car 44 is judged predominantly at fault.”

      Oh wait, overly aggressive Lewis saw red mist and drove into Max.

      “Hamilton did exactly the same with Leclerc.”
      Yes, Leclerc even mentioned this pre race: He noticed how Max gave Lewis enough room, only for Lewis to make a desperate attemp and still hit Max, and that was why he gave Lewis some extra space.

      To late man:

      Lewis is exposed as the overrated champ most people know he is, and showed his true colors today with his red mist actions and despicable behaviour afterwards.

      There is no redemption.

      And you’re quoting Otmar……yeah right, the unbiased one…….

      1. Indeed. Both Max and Charles were ahead in the corner and entitled to follow the racing line. If Charles had taken the line he was entitled he would also have suffered a 51G impact – or maybe even worse!

        This has to stop. The title cannot be decided by incidents like this.
        I just hope Max will just beat Lewis fair and square and not give him a dose of his own medicine.

        1. Yeah someone need to take Lewis aside and tell him he is going to far now. First Albon twice, now Max. He is lost, I have always seen it. A small insecure guy that resorts to this behavior. Toto has a responsibility here to not just exploit this damaged mijd, but to also guide it

      2. I have seen enough f1 races to know that the car in the inside lane, even slightly behind has an advantage. Max should be aware Lewis was there. Lewis was aware Max was there because he was attempting to overtake by forcing Max to defend to the left creating room on the right. The potential for a crash in this scenario has always been 75 percent chance depending on other factors, in this case, Max wanted to defend the right and Hamilton wants to continue his quest. The 25 percent chance of no collision rest solely on the drivers. As can be seen with Leclerc and Lewis. Lewis’ decision to hold his ground this time around should not be seen as Lewis colliding with Max or that Max defending his position causing the crash. It was a racing incident. Lewis was lucky because of his position and probably grip on the track. Both drivers should take responsibility for not avoiding collision.

      3. key word here is PREDOMINANTLY. That means >/=51% at fault. Does not mean that max was putting excessive squeeze that led to it. Same with perez last race. Leclerc by very aggressively trying to shove his way on the outside put himself into an accident that even though wont be his fault was still risky nonetheless. Its like a car that suddenly brakes getting rear ended. Unless you can prove malicious intent the person behind will always be at fault, but if the driver is braking unnecessarily hard for no reason, hes also responsible for putting the 2 into the collision.

    5. So Verstappen should have go off the circuit, while Hamilton had a given right to have 100% of circuit width?

      1. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
        19th July 2021, 9:54

        @regs

        Well, that’s exactly what Verstappen did to Hamilton in Imola and Barcelona.

        You’re not going to play the ‘one rule for Max, but another rule for Lewis’ game, are you?

        No, of course you’re not, because that would be childish of you.

    6. @bulgarian mercedes b team principal.

    7. I’ve watched it several times too, I agree with Daniel Ricciardo, “they both went in too hot”. I don’t know how Verstappen was ever going to make that corner.

      1. Lmao, Ricciardo said it was only Lewis who got in to hot at Cobs. See…fixed it for ya

  3. Is this a joke? Max left plenty space, you overshoot the corner and put him in the wall. Who’s respectful?
    Everyone should just make way for Sir Lewis. Wow.

    1. @Initially, Lewis couldn’t really move any more right because of the Armco Barrier.

      1. @jerejj

        “It was Ericcson”

        Lol, the desperate attempts of Lewis his fans trying to salvage his legacy are incredibly stupid, but funny.

        1. That would have been epic first words from Max after the crash

        2. @Niki101 FYI, I’m not a fan of either. Just an unbiased view.

        3. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
          19th July 2021, 10:27

          @Niki101 “Lol, the desperate attempts of Lewis his fans trying to salvage his legacy are incredibly stupid, but funny.”

          “salvage his legacy”??? So, Hamilton’s legacy is at risk, because he (brace yourselves) had a collision with another car?

          Oh, yes, because Hamilton is the only driver who’s ever done that, isn’t he?

          I don’t think the Hamilton fans are the only ones who are “incredibly stupid, but funny” around here. LOL

      2. There was plenty of space for Hamilton. He could slow down a bit to move to to the right.

        1. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
          19th July 2021, 10:28

          If only it were that easy!

        2. max had even more space to open his steering slightly more instead of slamming the door while ham was unsighted in his blindspot. see composites

          https://imgur.com/a/NInVRVY

      3. He could in his battle with Leclerc.. so..?

      4. What are you talking about? He overdrove and understeered in to Verstappen. You have to be blind not to se it. There was plenty of space left by Verstappen. But Lewis went in too hot and went straight in to Verstappen. You can’t blame Verstappen because you can’t make the corner.
        How do you manage to hit an apex in any other corner? You slow down sufficiently. That’s literally how cornering works. Every corner.
        The fact that Hamilton can’t admitt it’s his fault and appologise just shows his arrogance. And the silly comment about the pass on leclerc.. that worked out solely because that time he actually made the corner

    2. In the braking zone they were side by side by, Vestappen tried to brake later and slam the door. It’s not far off the “unless you back out we’re going to crash” tactic Senna occasionally used. If they hadn’t collided Vestappen would have gone off track anyway.

      1. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
        19th July 2021, 10:33

        @Craig “It’s not far off the “unless you back out we’re going to crash” tactic Senna occasionally used”

        Not to mention the “unless you back out we’re going to crash” tactic that Verstappen used in Imola and Barcelona.

        1. More the, “if you do not let sir Lewis pass in his homerace I will put you into the wall”

          1. Which is almost word for word what Horner says about Max’s driving. And you have always applauded Max for. You should be proud of Ham for finally giving you the aggressive driving you admire so much.

          2. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
            21st July 2021, 3:13

            @erikje “More the, “if you do not let sir Lewis pass in his homerace I will put you into the wall””

            You are such a hypocrite. Are you not even slightly embarrassed by being such a hypocrite?

  4. Am I the one who’s blind or did Lewis take a completely different line (hugging the apex) when trying to pass Leclerc?
    I’m pretty sure Leclerc and Verstappens line through the corner is the exact same.

    1. Agree. Besides that: it was later in the race, the car was lighter and the tyres warmer. Different situation, different interests between drivers.

      1. Is that the pass that forced leclerc off the track? Nuf said right there.

        1. LeClerc carried too much speed and had a snap of oversteer which he corrected taking him off track. At no point was he forced off track, it’s a textbook example of an unforced error.

    2. @paeschli even better, Lewis backed off in his pass on Charles, waiting until Charles drove off track to complete the pass.

    3. F1oSaurus (@)
      18th July 2021, 21:28

      @paeschli Hamilton was hit even before making it to the apex. After the hit the car would obviously understeer and run Hamilton wide correcting for this.

      Hamilton did exactly the same with Leclerc. Leclerc finished P2 while Verstappen ended his race.

      1. @f1oclown

        Yes:

        “The Stewards reviewed video and telemetry evidence,” the stewards said. “Cars 33 [Verstappen] and 44 [Hamilton] entered turn 9 with Car 33 in the lead and Car 44 slightly behind and on the inside.

        “Car 44 was on a line that did not reach the apex of the corner, with room available to the inside.

        “When Car 33 turned into the corner, Car 44 did not avoid contact and the left front of Car 44 contacted the right rear of Car 33. Car 44 is judged predominantly at fault.”

        Oh wait, overly aggressive Lewis saw red mist and drove into Max.

        “Hamilton did exactly the same with Leclerc.”
        Yes, Leclerc even mentioned this pre race: He noticed how Max gave Lewis enough room, only for Lewis to make a desperate attemp and still hit Max, and that was why he gave Lewis some extra space.

        To late man:

        Lewis is exposed as the overrated champ most people know he is, and showed his true colors today with his red mist actions and despicable behaviour afterwards.

        There is no redemption.

        1. RandomMallard (@)
          18th July 2021, 21:59

          Wow we both quoted the decision at almost the same time!

          I wouldn’t go as far as saying Lewis is overrated. He is a great driver, and made what can only be described as a mistake today, nothing worse (i.e. it was not deliberate). I think the understeer on Hamilton’s car, which is really obvious when you compare it to the onboard of his move on Leclerc, was the main factor in the collision.

        2. And it’s still ongoing in July.

      2. RandomMallard (@)
        18th July 2021, 21:56

        @f1osaurus But the stewards disagree with you. They, having ‘reviewed video and telemetry evidence’, said that:

        . Car 44 was on a line that did not reach the apex of the corner, with room available to the inside.

        Hamilton was already understeering before he hit Verstappen. Channel 4 pointed it out and it’s pretty obvious when you compare the steering angle and actual turning angle in response between the incident with Max, where he was at least a metre away from the edge of the track and the overtake on Leclerc, for which he was fully on the kerb. The track on the inside of Copse was dirty, and it just meant Lewis’ front end didn’t bite. This isn’t entirely Lewis’ fault that he understeered, but it was a bit of a misjudgement to attempt a pass on a very dirty part of the track

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          18th July 2021, 22:07

          @randommallard True the stewards do make mistakes. It’s clear that Hamilton was doing fine and he even braked to make sure Verstappen had enough space.

          1. @f1oclown
            “Hamilton was doing fine and he even braked to make sure Verstappen had enough space.”
            Now if only he had been aware of the sizable gap Max left for him……

            There is no redemption anymore.

          2. RandomMallard (@)
            19th July 2021, 9:22

            @f1osaurus But under that precedence the penalty Raikkonen received for hitting Hamilton at turn 3 was a mistake as well. They are very similar incidents. The car behind (Hamilton yesterday, Raikkonen in 2018) has more speed and draws level approaching the corner, loses ground to the car on the outside because they are on the compromised inside line, and then understeers into the car on the outside (Hamilton understeered because of the dirty track, Raikkonen because of a lock up). They make left-front to right-rear contact, and the car on the outside is pitched into a spin.

            Or, as I’m sure you’d rather me put it, Hamilton on the outside in 2018 was suicidal and was making a move that wasn’t on and didn’t leave Raikkonen anywhere near enough space and should as a result he drove right through Raikkonen, who shouldn’t have been penalised. Because that’s what you’re claiming happened yesterday.

          3. F1oSaurus (@)
            19th July 2021, 9:58

            @randommallard Hamilton didn’t make a mistake. He was alongside and had the rights to the racing line. Verstappen should have yielded like Norris and Leclerc did. They went on to finish their race. Verstappen decided he was going to crash rather than be passed. Well he got that.

    4. That is exactly the point. Very lenient penalty. Especially considering it is the third time on a RedBull, exact same move, exact same mistake, exact same penalty. You would almost think Lewis is somewhat frustrated and did it intentionally. Lets give him the benefit of the doubt, I am sure he is not a psychopath

  5. If this goes on like this a little longer, Lewis is also passing Schumacher on the bad sportsmanship scale

    1. Only you would get 10s stop/go penalties (or at least a drive through) in the Schumacher era. This 10s penalty gives a very high reward for punting the competition off. RB has massive costs again, just liks Baku with the Pirellli failure. That poor Honda got battered and will result in grid penalties later on. So in effect, Verstappen will get more punishment than Hamilton ever got.

    2. Yes, he truly is going for all records isnt he? He now needs to work on his timing. This was useless to get the dirtiest driver trophy. He should wait until there is more at stake and dont do it so randomly mid season.

  6. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
    18th July 2021, 20:48

    Rubbish, but naturally Mercedes sticks to their story. The footage doesn’t like: Hamilton wasn’t nearly ahead of Verstappen as he claimed on the radio and Verstappen left plenty of room. Hamilton was simpyl too eager on the wrong turn: Everyone knows that one is both blind and fast and you don’t expect anyone to divebomb on the inside.

    A real man would admit he made a mistake, but clearly Hamilton isn’t going to.

    1. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
      18th July 2021, 20:52

      In addition (nice edit key btw /s) this is just Lewis playing his mindgames again of indirectly saying he think Verstappen is unrespectul, obviously dig at that social-post Verstappen put up a while ago.

      It was bound to happen that the two got together like this, but the way it happened leaves a sour taste. And naturally there’s going to be a heavy payback somewhere down the line. You can bet Verstappen will get back into that ragemode he showed years ago and this time Hamilton will be on the receiving end. I can only hope it doesn’t turn the entire championship into a pile of goo, but I won’t bet money on it that it won’t.

    2. A real man Hamilton? What kind of fairy tale would we live in?

  7. Glad Lewis overcame Flemish International Assistance. Never have seen a more farcical penalty. Little Max got what he deserved.

    1. He received the second softest penalty. He should have gotten at least drive through.

      1. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
        19th July 2021, 11:33

        @raddie “He should have gotten at least drive through.”

        Why? Everyone else gets a 10-second penalty for this type of incident. Why should Hamilton get more?

        Why are you prejudiced against Hamilton?

    2. @darryn
      How long did it take you to think up that silly acronym?

    3. Why? Because Max isn’t British? -_-

    4. That there is exactly how Lewis’ mind works as well…

  8. This guy completely lost it. What an idiot.

  9. I think the incident ultimately comes down to Hamilton recalibrating his approach to wheel to wheel combat, and Verstappen not…

    What I actually mean by this is, historically Hamilton has been championship leader and in those situations he plays the long game. In a battle with Verstappen, he tended to come off worse as he gave more space, to protect his championship lead.

    Verstappen, on the other hand, historically could be much more aggressive with no championship on the line.

    For the early part of this year those approaches were seen whenever the two went wheel to wheel. More often than not Hamilton would back out to survive another day, while Verstappen would get the upper hand.

    The trouble is now, due to a fantastic run of form by Red Bull (and in particular Verstappen), Hamilton had fallen so far behind in the championship that his self preservation approach no longer worked. He couldn’t afford to roll over and let Verstappen go, he had to be the one to force Verstappen to back out. Essentially that’s what he did today – forced the issue.

    Verstappen on the other hand, still had his prior knowledge of Hamilton on his mind – he’ll back out, he always does. Only this time, he didn’t.

    Contact was made, that due to the nature of where it happened, had a huge impact.

    My gut feeling is the stewards thought it was a racing incident. However, due to the outcome, and ultimately the red flag meaning Hamilton didn’t fall down the order making a pit stop for a nose change, they felt they had to penalise him.

    1. What a way to turn it around. Lewis couldn’t make that corner from that angle, went in too fast, missed the apex and hit Max on the rear wheel in a very fast corner.

      He got lucky to get away with it.

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        18th July 2021, 21:29

        @anunaki Hamilton braked. Verstappen didn’t and picked a line straight through Hamilton.

        1. @F1oclown

          Yes:

          “The Stewards reviewed video and telemetry evidence,” the stewards said. “Cars 33 [Verstappen] and 44 [Hamilton] entered turn 9 with Car 33 in the lead and Car 44 slightly behind and on the inside.

          “Car 44 was on a line that did not reach the apex of the corner, with room available to the inside.

          “When Car 33 turned into the corner, Car 44 did not avoid contact and the left front of Car 44 contacted the right rear of Car 33. Car 44 is judged predominantly at fault.”

          Oh wait, Hamilton missed the apex, failed to brake and crashed into Max.

          Real champ….
          Decent human being….

          1. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
            19th July 2021, 9:12

            I’m interested in the quote from the Stewards:- “Car 44 did not avoid contact”

            But…. Hang on…. since when has it been Car 44’s job to avoid contact? Who made that rule? Where’s that written down?

            Why doesn’t Car 33 have to avoid contact?

            But, now you mention it, I think that rule must be written down somewhere. Just look at Imola, lap 1, turns 1 and 2. Car 33 forces Car 44 off the track and Car 44 has to avoid contact. And then Barcelona lap 1, turns 1 and 2. Car 33 again forces Car 44 to avoid contact.

            Then, Britain lap 1, turn 9 Car 44 fails to avoid contact. Result? Automatic penalty.

            So, I think that rule must be written down somewhere.

            Hardly seems fair, though, does it?

          2. (@amancalledchuda)
            Car 33 was in front. If he brakes Lewis would have t boned him
            Car 44 lost control, making a turn as an amateur and oversteered. If he backed off nothing would have happened.

          3. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
            19th July 2021, 12:02

            @Niki101 “Oh wait, Hamilton missed the apex, failed to brake and crashed into Max.
            Real champ….
            Decent human being….”

            What? So Hamilton is the only driver who’s ever done that, is he? This may come as an enormous shock to you Niki, but pretty much every driver’s done it.

            Was this the first race you’ve ever watched? I do hope it was, because otherwise, the nonsense you’re spouting on here is completely irrational. Having said that, irrationality tends to be what you get from Hamilton-haters.

          4. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
            19th July 2021, 12:49

            @erikje “Car 33 was in front. If he brakes Lewis would have t boned him”

            Why do you think he would brake? All he has to do is open the steering to go wider, thus giving Hamilton more room – exactly as Hamilton did in Imola and Barcelona.

            If the “amateur” Hamilton can manage it, why can’t ‘Golden Boy’ Verstappen?

        2. He obviously didn’t slow down enough from the position he was in. MAx took the exact same line as Leclerc did later on. Only difference was that Lewis actually did back out as he should then.

          But it’s over and done now, we know now lewis will do whatever it takes to win like Schumacher. And he looks pretty well protector doing so.

          1. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
            19th July 2021, 12:13

            @anunaki “lewis will do whatever it takes to win like Schumacher”

            So, you mean that he’ll be driving more like the way Verstappen drives? So it’s OK for Verstappen to drive that way, but not Hamilton? Why?

          2. @amancalledchuda

            I’ve never seen Max make such a move in such a high speed corner. Of course all people make mistakes but this was just very very dangerous.

            But this was yesterday and it’s time to move in to the next one.

          3. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
            21st July 2021, 2:30

            @anunaki “I’ve never seen Max make such a move in such a high speed corner.”

            Well you have. You saw it in this incident. Lewis was alongside, on the inside, so, arguably, it was his corner – so Max should have backed-out of it. But, given that Max is such an aggressive driver, he didn’t.

            The most telling evidence is the onboard footage from Max’s car. As he turns into the corner, you can clearly see Lewis’s front wing alongside Max. Max clearly sees Lewis, because he steers to the left to avoid him – but only for a fraction of a second, before changing his mind and turning back to the right – despite knowing that there is a car to his right. Max seems to have a ‘Get out of my way or we’re going to collide!’ attitude, and that attitude cost him the race, unfortunately. It’s an attitude that was evident at both Imola and Barcelona. As a Verstappen fan, you probably think that other drivers should just get out of Max’s way, but why should they?

            On the subject of the penalty that Hamilton received, have a look at this footage of the Sainz vs Grosjean incident at Copse in 2018…

            https://youtu.be/rp7oMpvEBJQ

            Now, given that this was considered a racing incident and no penalties were handed out, I’d be interested in your views on why Hamilton was given a penalty for this recent incident.

        3. u obviously havent driven around copse before to know u have to brake much earlier than that from the inside of the corner

        4. he clearly didn’t brake enough for a heavy car, cold tires and dirty line. Just look at where Lewis’s car ended after making the corner, he touched the exit of the turn on the far left. If he would have braked enough, he would stayed more on the right or in the middle of the track, to allow for Max’s car on the left. With Leclerc he did brake a lot more and also he had less understeer given the car was 100Kg lighter.

          1. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
            19th July 2021, 12:30

            @gechichan “he clearly didn’t brake enough for a heavy car, cold tires and dirty line. … If he would have braked enough, he would stayed more on the right or in the middle of the track, to allow for Max’s car on the left.”

            To be fair, you don’t know this.

            For all we know, he would have made the exit with a car’s width on the outside. Perhaps the only reason he didn’t was because the collision unbalanced the car, causing it to go wider that it would otherwise have done. Or perhaps, with Verstappen out of the way, Hamilton was able to hit the throttle earlier, taking the trajectory of the car wider – all the way to the exit curb.

            Let’s be clear, I’m just guessing here as well, but I’m just pointing out that we should be aware of how little we really know about this stuff.

          2. @amancalledchuda I think we know. Here is the proof: https://jmp.sh/ZIOVMsZ

          3. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
            19th July 2021, 12:57

            @GechiChan

            I’m sorry, but a couple of still photos prove absolutely nothing about the trajectory of any of those cars. All it shows is that they entered on different lines. It says nothing whatsoever about where they’ll be on exit. You’d need some kind of physics-based computer model to calculate that.

    2. 2016 fight with the later world champion Rosberg in spain comes to mind.
      When lewis is under pressure he will take rookie decisions after all those years.

      1. Its rather comical you have to go back to 2016 and to an incident in which neither driver was deemed responsible by stewards to show these “rookie decisions”. This only shows how cautious Hamilton has been in wheel-to-wheel racing in the latter stages of his career.

        1. There’s also the double punt on Albon at Brazil 2019 and Austria 2020. The Austria one in particular has parallels to this crash (albeit at much lower speed), primarily being caused by Hamilton trying to “close the door” on another driver despite being nowhere near a position to do so.

      2. Now this is naive. That accident happened because Lewis got onto the grass. Why? Because he was trying to avoid Nico after he swerved sharply to shut the door on Lewis.

    3. I don’t agree with this at all. Verstappen has been driving cleaner and smarter since the start of the season, and Hamilton in his desperation is trying to be more aggressive when racing Verstappen, backing out of moves later and ultimately making judgement mistakes like today.
      With how British centric the whole F1 circus is, he got away with only the second most lenient penalty while being clearly to blame for a race-ending and very violent crash.
      The fact he took a totally different approach when overtaking Leclerc shows to me that Verstappen is in his head.

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        18th July 2021, 21:31

        @paeschli Verstappen has been driving like a total bully with his you “either we crash or you let me pass dive bombs” or his “we either crash or you yield and stay behind me defenses”. Pretty much every race. He did a few times on the first lap here too. The last one Hamilton decided it was enough though.

      2. You don’t have to agree with it. After all the whole comments section is just opinion. Just like I can choose not to agree with your statement about it being British centric as to why he didn’t get penalised much. Last time I checked it was the stewards that gave out the penalties… And they definitely weren’t all British.

        Verstappen has been overall smarter this year as you say (compared to himself in previous years), however a number of first corner moves on Hamilton have relied on Hamilton getting out of the way.

        You’re also right that Verstappen is absolutely in Hamilton’s head. However, you can’t beat a guy who doesn’t back out, by backing out all the time. Hamilton chose today to change that and not to back out. Given the points gap he absolutely couldn’t afford to back out again. We saw the result.

        Now Hamilton has firmly put himself into Verstappen’s head too. Question is, who will back out first next time…

        Now the points have closed back up again, they both need to be careful. Or, perhaps they won’t and we watch chaos at every race start going forward.

    4. I could not have put it better. MV thought about earlier in the season when LH backed out of a move to fight another day……that day was today!

      Being 33 points behind has forced LH to sacrifice the long game for the here and now…..For me, the big question now is, does MV recognise this change in outlook from his main competitor?

      1. GAVIN CHAPMAN
        18th July 2021, 22:19

        @Mikef117 👍 that will be the question. This may get costly for the 2 teams but it may get good for us fans

    5. agreed

    6. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
      19th July 2021, 11:53

      @cdavman

      Completely agree with your post.

      Hamilton yielded to Verstappen at the start of both Imola and Barcelona, probably thinking something along the lines of, “Yeah, Max, you can get your elbows out as much as you like. I’m still going to win the Championship.” Now that he’s 33 points behind, of course, the gloves have to come off. It’s no more Mr. Nice-guy.

      I agree that Verstappen was probably convinced that Hamilton would back out of it again, and was surprised that he didn’t.

      If Red Bull can’t control their little loose canon, the rest of the season could be very interesting.

      1. He had to yield there because there was no way he could pass.
        He made a rookie error this time. Lost control and hit Verstappen.

        1. Graham (@amancalledchuda)
          21st July 2021, 3:00

          @erikje “He had to yield there because there was no way he could pass.”

          Why was there “no way he could pass”?

          He was almost alongside and on the inside. That’s the standard overtaking procedure; out-brake your opponent and dive down the inside into the corner. I could show you thousands of overtakes using this technique.

          Try this for example. Vettel vs Alonso at (funnily enough) Copse corner…

          https://youtu.be/fVnbJQRpG5w?t=50

          The big difference? Alonso is a wiser/better driver than Verstappen, does the right thing and concedes the corner.

  10. I’m beginning to wonder if, after seeing all the cheating-accusations fail, Lewis is trying to get under Max’s skin this way. Not sure if it’s going to work.

    1. Max has already moved on. Max likes exploring the limit of what is allowed, now he knows what you can do in exchange for a 10s penalty.
      Such lenient penalties only encourage further aggressiveness down the line.

      1. and if he keeps loosing out then he will only have himself to blame

      2. Unfortunately since the stewards are so inconsistent, it doesnt work that way

  11. GtisBetter (@)
    18th July 2021, 20:53

    In case anybody is wondering, Lewis is playing mindgames with all these comments. He had the upper hand today for the first time in a while and is pushing down the pedal hoping max will react.

    1. No, he had the upper hand Friday with a flying lap.
      Saturday he had nothing after losing the start.
      Sunday he had a iffy attempt into an overtake.

      1. GtisBetter (@)
        18th July 2021, 20:59

        He won, Max had zero points, Perez also got nothing and the whole RB team was foaming mad. Mercedes had a good day.

        1. @passingisoverrated and next time Max will be on the inside, knowing exactly what his penalty will be to erase Hamilton from the points.

          1. problem is hamilton will know to yield unlike max

          2. @lucifer and yet Ham did not yield, as multiple replays show he had space on the inside, which the pass on Charles proved since Ham DID actually yield at that point.

            Remember when the team told Ham he got a penalty and he didn’t argue? He saw the replay during red flag and he knows it was his fault.

          3. F1oSaurus (@)
            18th July 2021, 21:32

            Verstappen does this all the time. Usually Hamilton yields, but now he decided not to

          4. GtisBetter (@)
            18th July 2021, 21:56

            Doubt it. Max will move on and try to win a championship, not worry about silly things like revenge.

          5. F1oSaurus (@)
            19th July 2021, 8:38

            @passingisoverrated Remember when he didn’t want a much faster Ocon on fresh tyres to get past him in Brazil? He wasted a win because he was still sore about things that happened in F3 years before.

            I seriously doubt Verstappen has the ability to think straight in these situations.

            On the other hand it’s not like Verstappen hasn’t been bullying everybody on track for … well ever since he started. Just see Imola, Spain, Austria. Plenty of “you either crash or let me past” actions.

        2. Perez stole one point from Hamilton by setting the fastest lap while running outside the top 10

      2. Also the fastest car. Would have been quite a blow to lose 2 races in superior machinery, espeecially behind a Ferrari.

        1. @lucifer
          “problem is hamilton will know to yield unlike max”

          Hamilton who today only retired as many drivers as Max did in his career?

          Sure, he knows how to yield…….

          1. There’s someone in the comments section of what I thought was a reputable newspaper with the same User name as you, spouting the exact same nonsense. Are you talking about Max’s whole career, or career as an F1 driver? If I remember correctly Verstappen crashed into his own team mate in Hungary 3 years ago, which forced Ricciardo to retire.. oh, and he received a 10 second penalty. Generally, when Max did crash into a fellow driver, he normally came off worse.

          2. @Niki101 Ontop of the situation mentioned by Debra there was the Baku incident with Riccardo as well. Believe he was deemed partially responsible for that crash as well and they both retired from that race.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36YFQTFzZwU

            So your statement is false.

  12. Exactly what I’ve been thinking. He’d taken that Norris there already and each time the drivers were sensible but not cocky Max. I wish him well and hope he hasn’t suffered too much.
    Horner is a class 1 buttock for throwing his toys out of the pram. Similar incidents happen like that all the time, most of which were correctly deemed racing incidents in the past. Duh, race=racing.

  13. I have no problems with Lewis podium celebrations after the race. What really bothered me was seeing some fans in the stand cheering before max got out of the car. I mean what if he was seriously injured. I knew the bar was low for English sports fans, but this was a new low

    1. I agree with the principal problem here. The fans who did that are creating a toxic atmosphere which is likely to rebound in the future on the sport as a whole.

      But the problem has deeper roots. It is just unhealthy for Formula One to root for a driver just because he is from “your” country. Nationalism, which is deeply rooted in so many sports should ideally stay away from F1 as much as possible. And I admire the people who are able to rise above that and cheer for a driver of their choosing, based on his(hers?) personality or more often driver abilities.

    2. @suwperman I remember similar complaints after Schumacher had his leg-breaking crash at Stowe in 1999. It is low, but it is not new.

      1. Try being any other nationality and crashing in (I’m not going to name the country) we had the crowd grabbing the jackets of the medical staff trying to reach our car to hold them back and chanting “fire fire fire”. Most fans are utterly disgusting

  14. I sincerely hope that 2022 regulation brings car closer.
    WIth the Mercedes hegemony gone, we will be able to see where Hamilton stands on the grid.
    The average championship finish for Bottas in Mercedes was between 2nd-3rd (5th was the worst).
    Bottas is not the 2nd or 3rd best driver on the grid. Neither is Hamilton this good without the car.
    This Sunday manouver showed his desperation. It might be a preview for the years to come.
    Somewhat just as Schumacher in his last years.

    1. I get tired of reading this old whine. “Neither is Hamilton this good without the car”. By extension then so is Max, or anybody else on the grid for that matter.

  15. You know what… The result is so unsatisfying today… It’s not just that it feels unfair a championship contender was taken out of the race and the penalty ended up not mattering. It’s that the sport has become so full of gimmicks that benefit only the fastest team: You get extra points for sprint qualifying on top of already being on pole. You get extra points for fastest lap, although as fans we never get to enjoy the fastest lap, and only the driver with enough gap can actually go for them. You have artificial tyre rules that benefit only those who are fast enough get to Q3 on the harder compound. The car changes from year to year are limited by tokens so whatever advantage or disadvantage is locked for one more year. It’s almost as if the sport is designed so that whoever is dominating does so in the most humiliating way to other contenders. Sure, Lewis is a great driver and was able to close a gap that Bottas couldn’t but he drives a fricking Mercedes, and a 10 second penalty just doesn’t matter.

    1. Don’t forget the red flag so that Hamilton can get his car repaired without losing any time as well.

      1. Lol, it was ever a red flag or 20+ laps behind the safety car.

  16. “I backed out at one point just to make sure that we didn’t come together”

    Lewis actually backed out twice in that opening few corners. Lewis got a better start and backed out. Then he backed out again into Corner 6 (Brooklands). This time Max should have backed off as Lewis already backed off twice to avoid collision. But Max just doesn’t do that. He doesn’t know the balance what Lewis is talking about. He wants everything his way or the contact will be made.

    “we have to really try and find the best balance we always can on-track with space and respect”

    Lack of respect for other driver he is racing and general lack of balance between attack and backing off are the two problems of Max’s driving. The boy needs to wise up and bring that crucial balance in his driving. Otherwise Max can never win a title unless he got a very dominant car.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      18th July 2021, 21:35

      @amg44 Exactly, at some point the bullying is just too much. Good that Hamilton finally took a stand.

      Although, in fairness, yet again he tried to yield and braked to back out of it. But Verstappen was so crass that he drove a line straight through where he knew Hamilton would be since they were pretty much fully side by side before.

      1. Ben (@scuderia29)
        19th July 2021, 9:18

        Deluded, if there was any bullying, it was the car that punted another off on a 160mph corner, he wasn’t alongside, he had his front wing alongside and left it there going into the apex then understeered into max

    2. Lewis tried twice to pass ver. Max had a brilliant reaction on each of those tries.
      The frustration caused the rookie error by Lewis the third time
      He simply was unable to got the pass done so he took desperate action
      Cracking under pressure again.

      1. But earlier on you said he lost control? Which is it? Did he lose control as you said above or do it deliberately as you say here.

    3. @amg44

      After reading a lot of the comments here, I kind of agree with what you’ve mentioned. Although, I don’t assign a lot of blame to Max. For me I think both were at fault… maybe more Lewis than Max.

      This is the way I saw it –
      Turn 1 – Max was aggressive in defending by going off the track at turn 1 to defend his position. I felt it was an illegal move to defend this position, as we’ve seen drivers handing back a position when they overtake another car off the track. In this case, Max defended a position by going off track. Surely Lewis understood that Max wasn’t going to yield that position on lap 1 just after this corner.
      Turn 6 – Lewis was ahead of Max and on the racing line for this corner. Lewis didn’t be aggressive enough in covering off the corner and Max dive bombed to hold position. Lewis did have to back out of this move or else they would have had contact.
      Turn 9 – Max squeezed Lewis to the inside, making it difficult for Lewis to take the apex on that corner without lifting. This time Lewis decided not too lift and was hoping that Max would take a slightly wider line knowing he was on the inside. Max thought he had already covered off Lewis and left sufficient space, so he took an ideal line for that corner. There was contact and that was it.

      The way I see it, Lewis was to blame for the turn 9 incident, but Max could have avoided it by taking a slightly safer and wider line through that corner. Lewis was pinched on the entry and there was a high chance of him making contact with Max. Max however, was to blame for the aggressiveness of the battle. His defending in turn 1 and turn 6 was as hard as it gets. If a driver attempting to overtake adopts the same level of aggressiveness, there’s a high chance you get a turn 9 incident. Which is exactly what happened.

      Personally, I think Lewis’ penalty was justified. Hats off to him on coming back and still taking the race win. I’m just glad we have this quality of racing upfront. Some harsh incidents like this are bound to happen, and I hope Max doesn’t bear the brunt of it too often. He’s been far more unlucky than Lewis this season and I hope luck doesn’t decide the championship battle between them.

  17. Reading all those comments against Hamilton really amazes me, most of them being too biased. Many people here see things black and white. This championship is on a very thin line and noone won in this sport by giving away room or opportunities. Better try to see both perspectives instead of feeling obliged to point a finger.
    Since Verstappen was eliminated by the incident, it was understandable that Lewis would pay a price for it. If it was the other way around and Lewis DNF, I am sure that Verstappen would have been considered to cause a collision in the very same circumstances.

    1. The penalty was too lenient, I have no other complaints. The stewards explanation is nailing it IMHO

  18. Silly, aggressive mistake by Verstappen. Had he backed off slightly he would still have a had a chance of winning the race, or only losing 7 points. Instead he put himself in hospital.

    1. Ben (@scuderia29)
      19th July 2021, 9:19

      I just cannot understand comments like this, how is getting pushed off the circuit putting yourself in hospital? unbelievable

    2. Had he backed off slightly

      He would have been t boned by Lewis. Only Lewis could have avoided a crash.

  19. He can’t be serious? Max and Charles took the exact same line. It was Hamilton who went too wide with Verstappen.

    1. Sam (@undercut677)
      18th July 2021, 21:28

      He is serious but too dense. You are 100% right. If anything, Max gave Lewis more space than Charles did but it was Hamilton who took a different line. But here you have Lewis fans take his wors for it because they are too lazy to look it up themselves.

    2. @carbon_fibre
      He is serious, and that’s the worst part.
      Today he succeeded Michael as most vile driver in the history of this sport, but atleast Michael showed some decency afterwards.

      1. Let’s not get carried away here. I don’t think anyone comes close to Michael in that regard. Hamilton doesn’t intentionally ram his car into rivals to end their title hopes.

        This was a debatable incident at who’s at fault between Lewis and Max. There was never any debate when Michael was driving a damaged car on the track waiting for a rival to catch up and then turning in on him.

    3. You need to watch it again, Max was near the centre right of the track trying to block the overtake, Lewis backed of when he was very nearly side by side knowing it wasn’t on, then made contact as he went backwards as Max still had he’s foot in, if he hadnt of crashed he would of gone of the track anyway and Lewis would of overtaken, Max knew he was there so why did he turn in? you cant just vanish at 180mph going into a corner, Leclerc was to the left of the track, on the racing line and put up no resistance to the overtake.

      1. put up no resistance to the overtake.

        Yep,that is what Lewis fans seem to think when sir Lewis overtakes.
        lol.

    4. F1oSaurus (@)
      18th July 2021, 21:37

      @carbon_fibre When Hamilton got tapped on the front wheel he gets oversteer. To correct for that he needs to take a wider line. If not for Verstappen tapping him, he would have hit that apex.

      1. In your dimension Ver hit Lewis.
        I get it. In the real world you could see from the onboard Lewis lost control and oversteered into max.
        Try again clown.

  20. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    18th July 2021, 21:07

    “I’m not going to whine about it” – he says, while whining about it.

    The Leclerc pass is totally different? Hamilton is much closer to the edge of the track and Leclerc’s got a massive gap between them. Against Verstappen Hamilton’s still got space beside him and still comes into the corner at an angle that’s going to slam straight into him.

    He literally punts his championship rival out of the race, gets an irrelevant penalty AND wins the race, and still complains? Man has issues.

    1. @rocketpanda exactly. They even showed how Max looked, saw Ham, and turned AWAY to give more space.

      And Ham had room on the inside for an entire other car, so he had plenty of space to give.

      Yet Ham spins Max and all these deranged fools think it is Max’s fault and surely Ham will eventually suggest that anyone who blames him needs to race as one.

    2. Ok, please tell us where Lewis is whining. Please paste in your response an extract of what he actually says that i clearly shows whining.

      1. Adam (@rocketpanda)
        18th July 2021, 22:05

        Show you where he’s whining? I mean banging on about it over and over again about how other people are ‘respectful’ and he wasn’t given enough space despite being so is pretty much complaining at this stage. He could just let it go and enjoy being the winner, going on about it isn’t necessary.

        1. That’s a very long winded way of saying that you can’t find and actual quote of his that could be considered whining.

    3. @rocketpanda His issues are of entitlement.

  21. Absolutely disgusted by Hamilton this weekend.

  22. The upside regarding Lewis’s win is that it gives the Hamilton Haters something to get crazily outraged about, more than they usually are. This probably bothers Hamilton’s supporters not one whit.

  23. Yes, you hitting the apex shows how Verstappen move should have gone.

  24. Lewis was 1 meter more to the right, on the apex, while passing Leclerc compare to the Max pass.

    1. Against a helpless Ferrari on older tires that was going a second a lap slower and that LH could have passed just as easily elsewhere.

      1. Sikhumbuzo Khumalo
        19th July 2021, 0:18

        The Ferrari was on newer tyres though.

  25. That about sums it up.

  26. Translation: “Leclerc was a good lad and didn’t challenge me too hard. That’s how people *should* race me!”

    1. Translator note: “if everybody challenge me as much as Bottas does we wwould not have this conversation about racing limits.”

  27. “He was very respectful in terms of leaving a gap,” said Hamilton.

    Yes, because he was sitting first row when you ploughed your car in Max his back despite having plenty of room on your right. He actually mentioned this post race.

    What a joke this guy is.

    1. @Niki101 Not really plenty because of the Armco Barrier on the right.

  28. Indeed.

  29. It worked well because Hamilton took a different approaches with both Leclerc and Verstappen. In Verstappen’s case he literally positioned his car in the middle where he should have kept it clean because Verstappen was slightly ahead. In Leclerc’s case he was on the inside even going on the curb and made it work for both drivers as they both made the corner.

    I remember Hamilton complaining about Leclerc’s dangerous driving in Monza 2019. This complement could backfire badly next year if Ferrari will be in contention for race wins because Leclerc, the baby faced assassin (from a sporting standpoint), can be as aggressive as Max or even more when it’s about wheel to wheel stuff. In today’s race he has no business holding Hamilton who was in a league of its own with 1s a lap pace advantage on the hard tyres and a higher top speed.

  30. My feeling is that this is a racing incident. These things happen. It is clearly Hamilton who is at fault though. And Verstappen is understandably frustrated. But the time penalty has been given and Hamilton did score a good win.

    What I can conclude though is that Hamilton is not that good in dealing with pressure. When he does not have the best car he starts whining and blames everybody. Winning with the best car is easy. Now at least he has a real fight at his hands. And in my honest opinion he is not dealing that well with it.

    I do agree with some people here that Max had this coming to him. He could also have waited to overtake later or do an undercut. This was an unnecessary crash but it was however Hamilton who missed the apex and is to blame.

    What Hamilton should have done is saying that these things happen, he did make an error, got penalised and still won. Not blame the other driver.

    Anyway things will get interesting in Hungary, Spa and Zandvoort. Looking forward to more driving to the limit.

    1. He’s making a point to Max that he won’t be bullied and he certainly won’t be seen to be remorseful over a situation that he didn’t cause. As somebody here already said, Lewis is signaling a recalibration of his racing mindset re Max

    2. lexusreliabilty?
      19th July 2021, 13:54

      You are clearly a casual if you think Hamilton does not deal well with pressure. I suggest you start watching some of his reaces from junior forumale and his early F1 years when he didn’t have the best car. Almost every athlete makes mistakes buddy- even the greatest of them all. Ever watched the Adelaide GP when Senna stuck it into Brundle while almost a lap in the lead? Educate yourself

  31. Aww. Moan some more… please… its making me giggle.

  32. Overtake on Leclerc was totally different. Hamilton gave respect to Leclerc but not Verstappen. Leclerc took the same line as Max but the difference was that Hamilton was way more on the inside on the apex .. look at this picture: https://twitter.com/maacchhiinnee/status/1416851750687023105/photo/1

    1. Also Leclerc moved out of the way securing great result for Ferrari. They need those points.

      1. And of course CL was a second a lap slower by then. LH had his choice of corners to pass him.

    2. Sikhumbuzo Khumalo
      19th July 2021, 0:23

      Im surprised no one is mentioning how Verstappen had pinched Lewis closer to the wall in the run up to Copse. This ultimately resulted in LH not being in position to make the apex of turn 9. Whereas Leclerc in his defense didn’t pinch him close to the wall and LH was able to make apex. I think LH approach was he wasn’t going to yield anymore to MV.

      1. yep he has taken a bottas approach to max so far

  33. I actually prefer this snake-tongued, ruthless, bordering on psychotic Hamilton over the fake run-of-the-mill script we’ve seen him do for so many years. At least it’s keeping it real. He’s obviously using the moment to apply psychological pressure on his rival which is fair enough for me. Winning this season would show the talent and form he had in his McLaren days didn’t fade during the lifting and coasting he’s been doing with the virtually unopposed and most dominant team in F1 history since the start of this era. British fans and British press are notorious all over the world so there are no surprises there either. What is more grating is the stewarding here. Punting off your championship rival from behind while being given 1.5 cars width is obviously worth much more than a 10 second penalty. A suspension would make more sense now he’s expressed to be happy with the way he put a guy into hospital. It’d just be too much of a shame for the championship.

  34. True HAM colours showing.

  35. He has to be joking right? What a disgrace of a person. It’s even more laughable knowing he backed out of a move at Copse in his battle with Leclerc and got lucky Leclerc tyres lost grip. Soar losers are terrible, but soar winners are the worst.

    I can’t wait for karma to hit.

  36. Everybody is free to have an opinion, but the facts are that this is not the first time Hamilton has used this tactic, it would be fantastic if sky F1 would show all of Hamilton’s collisions on the rear of his opponent’s tyres, I think he did it to Seb the year they were fighting, he did it to his teammate the year they were fighting only it did not go all his way that time, he did it twice to redbulls previous driver, so I think once the pressure is on he becomes dangerous on track.

    I remember when Shumi was driving everyone was up in arms, and when he took vielnerve out he had points deducted.

    As Horner said a hollow victory, and he should have all points pulled. I also feel sorry for Bottas, as I am sure it goes against every fibre in his body to play second fiddle to a cheat.

    We all love to see fighting on the track, but hitting below the belt is unacceptable, and only one person knows what happened. That is Hamilton, but the show is good providing no one gets badly injured, I think at the end of the day farmer will prevail, and he will have to concede that a better driver has emerged, it happens to us all, as we get older. Lewis I hope you can sleep at night.

  37. … career long reputation for taking out fellow drivers, Hamilton did exactly the same thing, taking out Felipe Massa, India, turn 4. Race steward, stupid Johnny Herbert, penalizing Felipe, never has Herbert since served in such capacity.

  38. … looming double-standard, Roman Grosean gets a one race disqualification, triggering a lap one accident, at Spa? Not only wasn’t Lewis Hamilton sanctioned? Having taken out Max Verstappen, he is celebrated –

  39. Cristiano Ferreira
    19th July 2021, 3:05

    Well im not surprised that “Sir” Scum 44 did that to another driver. It’s not the first time he did this and will not be the last either.

    The move he pulled on Verstappen is the same one i see everyday when i’m racing bad drivers in multiplayer lobbies in Codemasters F1 Game.

    But to me, most of the fault lies with FIA who is incapable of applying a very harsh penalty on him. They were very lenient on him with that 10 sec time penalty. If this was football, i’m pretty sure Hamilton would have received a red card for his behaviour.

    Instead, he sends a driver to a hospital, destroyed the chassis of his main rival, probably damaging Verstappen PU and Gearbox (which will make Verstappen incur in a penalty for changing these parts) and makes Red Bull spend a whole lot of money to repair all the damage. Ten seconds to that, only ten seconds and a win.

    Helmut Marko and Horner are right, this guy should receive at least a race ban for causing all that. But well, we are talking about MIA (Mercedes International Assistance) after all, and they will never do that to Mercedes.

    I hope both (Marko and Horner) instructs Perez / Tsunoda / Gasly to start ramming Hamilton out of the races just to do some payback, because that’s the precedent that FIA allowed with that laughable “penalty” they gave to Hamilton.

    1. i douby perez tsunoda or gasly would stoop so low to do that. horner might though

    2. Probably the angriest rant I’ve ever heard from you.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        20th July 2021, 1:31

        No matter who is the one in question. Two wrongs will never do one right.

  40. Rodric Ewulf
    19th July 2021, 3:24

    This is nothing but entitlement for others to extend a red carpet for him. He praised Leclerc just because he almost didn’t even attempt to defend the lead with very worn tyres. Comparing it with the start incident against Max is like compare apples with onions, and as such he effectively implied that rivals must surrender in front of him or else they’re wrong, even if they took the worse in a far from innocuous accident. And this is coming from the same one who is supposedly relishing the competition with Max, seriously.
    On top of that, refuses to accept his role on the incident and or even care about Max’s situation afterwads. The irony of it is, the nice guy mask of the most politically correct driver has fallen. Only now it’s plain obvious.

  41. Today shows how disgusting a driver/person Hamilton is, celebrating a win after you sent a rival to the hospital is horrible sportsmanship.

    And to say this after the race, does he expect others to pull over and allow him to pass. Leclerc did so because he’s race was with the McLarens, Verstappens race was directly with Hamilton.

    Finally a 10 second penalty in no way does justice to such disgraceful driving. Minimum should have been a drive through or even a stop and go. Because it was pretty clear that Hamilton was not going to pass there and knew there would be contact. Yet he went for it

  42. The pretender reverted to Red Mist of Rage yet again.
    The nonsense about who’s corner it was is just that nonsense.
    Look at the stills. Look at the slow motion.
    Max 100% turns even more to the right.
    Attempting to force Lewis to yield.
    Rage mode bit him on the rs.
    Horner needs to get a grip.
    F1. Not tea party etiquette classes.
    End of.

  43. I left a comment during the red flag that I thought it would be a penalty for Hamilton as the responsibility for these situations undoubtedly lies with the driver on the inside, and it still think that it’s justified, however there are a lot of statements being thrown around that are simply not true.

    Firstly, Hamilton WAS alongside max heading towards Copse and the difference in positioning at the point of the collision was because Max carried A LOT more speed into the corner. We saw Alonso try a similar thing later in the race round the outside of one of the McLarens and he ran off the road and had to give ​the place back, and of course Leclerc also tried to hang round the outside with no luck. Max was never making that corner.

    He also moved twice trying to position his car before Copse, once when Lewis threw the dummy and again when Lewis went the other way. It meant Lewis was very close to the wall and also picked up a lot of dust. Crucially too, Max didn’t move back out as wide as he could have done before turning in and kept a relatively narrow approach.

    This all matters because it meant that going into the corner they were in very close proximity. The outwash effect of these cars in such a high speed corner is extreme, and the closer you are to each other the more of an effect that it’s going to have on downforce. We all know Lewis understeered and didn’t make the apex and I’ve no doubt that this was partly due to all of the above.

    As the more experienced driver he should have expected this and is therefore responsible, but Max isn’t a spring chicken and he could have done more to avoid getting into that scenario. I don’t think for one second he considered conceding and he’s lost out dearly because of it.

    We saw the opposite in turn 1 at Barcelona where Max was on the inside and went in too hot. Lewis just managed to avoid contact then and went on to win which is something Max could have done yesterday.

    He had it coming. Lewis has been fair to this point and Max has taken some liberties (touching in Imola and pushing Lewis onto those harsh kerbs and then his Kamikaze Barcelona move). He’s ridden his luck and has finally lost out big.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      19th July 2021, 7:11

      When one has to make an appeal of other incidents with different track positionings, different speeds involved, etc. just to cover up a driver who actually caused a not so innocuous collision then you see how fanatic this person must be. It’s in the rules: whenever two drivers are fighting for the same racing line going into the corner the one who was behind need to back off, otherwise you’d get accidents pretty often.
      Max made one move to the inside to defend, but the problem was Lewis also went down the inside. Max even moved slightly to the outside of the track, leaving enough space before turning right. But Lewis felt he had completed the move when actually he hadn’t and just went deep into the corner like if no one was there, and then the collision. So it’s a fallacy to pretend it’s the same as unrelated clashes like the one they had in Barcelona: it happened in a low speed corner and with both drivers being aware of each other. The risks involved were far smaller.

      1. Did you miss the parts where I twice said that Lewis was responsible?

        As with any incident the other party can usually do more as well and I’m merely pointing out that Max has previous for making others yield to avoid crashes, and on this occasion the other driver didn’t yield, and probably won’t yield in the future.

        1. And yes, I’ve just rewatched it and you’re right that Max did only move the once.

          He wasn’t on the racing line prior to defending (positioning his car centrally) and then did what so many used to criticize him for at the beginning of his career and moved towards Hamilton AFTER Hamilton had committed. He actually almost put him in the wall.

          Like I said, he’s had it coming for a long time.

        2. Rodric Ewulf
          19th July 2021, 18:50

          It’s in the rules: whenever two drivers are fighting for the same racing line going into the corner the one who was behind need to back off, otherwise you’d get accidents pretty often.

          XMG Returning to this point, whenever Max had done that move before when he wasn’t the driver ahead, then he would be the main culprit of that collision. I don’t doubt it happened in the past at all, but it wasn’t the case yesterday. One can be driving “aggressively” and still be in his right to defend provided that the rules enable them to do so. What just can’t be is bend the rules over the entitlement of an unchallenged racing line even not being ahead of the rival car. You really need to analyse case-by-case to lessen the risk of blurring the facts over the narrative. Max certainly had been the culprit of collisions before like virtually every other racer with a drive rightfully deemed as aggressive, but not all driving moves labelled this way are necessarily wrong, or else it will get too subjective. All in all, complaints of aggressive driving style need not to be met with way more aggressive and/or reckless driving style. World class drivers should know how to properly deal with it.

    2. lexusreliabilty?
      19th July 2021, 13:43

      @ XMG

      +1. Very very well said. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Verstappen has been doing this his entire career and relied on others being more sensible and mature- I would even say before the crash Hamilton kept doing that until he had enough and fought fire with fire. Max and his fans like dishing it out but can’t handle the heat when it’s right back at them. For me this was a racing incident pure and simple.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        19th July 2021, 18:27

        lexusreliabilty? As soon as Max stopped causing collisions, specially a serious one like that, you just cannot use that as a reasonable excuse. Can you seriously imagine Alonso, or even most of the drivers in the current grid, complaining of aggressive driving and then causing a serious collision in response of it? Acting careless and dangerously behind the wheel and taking pride of it? This is Mazepin/Maldonado stuff, to be honest, and there’s no way to hide it. If his complaint of aggressive driving failed then he should be able to gauge better the aggressiveness he will display as a competitive response on track to overtake while still avoiding collisions. Alonso did the same about track limits on his starts recently and we hadn’t seen him bumping into other drivers with the excuse of previous hard starting techniques from others. He could have acted like Russell who has been having some dangerous drives recently as well, but he chose not to do like that. This choice of driving clean hadn’t stopped him to make that superb start in the sprint race though, so it’s just a fallacy to cover up your idol when he made a clearly dreadful move.

        1. lexusreliabilty?
          19th July 2021, 20:01

          @Rodric Ewulf

          I really can’t take you seriously when you think that a grown man like me “idolises” athletes. I support Hamilton. Much the same way, that I support my country (England, GB). Much the same way as I support my favourite football team- Liverpool. Clearly, my emotional attachment to Hamilton, isn’t as strong as yours to Verstappen. Someone’s clearly triggered- when you post something less emotional charged I might engage in a debate with you. But there’s nothing valuable for me to address in your rant.

          1. Rodric Ewulf
            19th July 2021, 21:51

            lexusreliabilty? And yet you reply not trying to refute my arguments, but trying to measure personal affinity for drivers? Go back to the relevant points of the discussion if you wish to keep this as a constructive reasoning, that is, analysing the collision involving the main title rivals at Copse. I’m not certain if in reality you’re a fanatic person or not (probably not given how things usually pan out online) but it’s just that you sound like one when I see your arguments that in my view are too biased towards Lewis, I type my counterarguments and all you write back is things regarding yourself and speculation about how much of a Max fan I am (not really relevant unless you just want to engage in ad hominem and divert from the main topic).

  44. Hamilton has never been a particularly good liar; even when he’s had ample time to formulate a response. It’s a good thing he drives race cars, because he’d never have made it as an attorney.

    1. The most accomplished judge in all of Alabama just shamed himself in court when he lied that he had not read a contract which he had personally changed terms on. I don’t think you need to be a good liar to get on well in the judiciary!

  45. I think what he said was bang on.

  46. What he is actually saying is that going off the track to let him past is the respectful way, but racing the blessed one and not letting him past even when he is trying banzai moves is disrespectful.

    Just as when the lowly Albon tried to pass him on the outside in Austria for example. Totally disrespectful so needed punting off to learn a lesson. (I believe he even hit him once before when he was disrespectful enough to challenge in Brazil)

    At least more people are seeing the dirty megalomaniac that is Hamilton.

    1. At last you’ve got some justification for your Hamilton commentary Balue. It’ll make it a little bit more bearable for the rest of us reading your opinions week in week out.

      FWIW, not that you care, Lewis accepted Brazil was his mistake and apologised immediately.

      1. At least you stayed true to form and went for the poster and not the post @sparkyamg

  47. Hamilton was more aggresive than the last few years. Nothing wrong about that, he’s no longer in the most dominant car i F1 history, he’s a great driver, and he want’s to win. And off course, Max is also a great driver, and want’s to win. In these conditions, I think this is just the first comming together of the year.
    I think the main reason an objective viewer isn’t happy about the race result is that Hamilton shunted Verstappen AND got away with it. If they both got a DNF, we’d probably be saying what a great race it was, and good on LEC for wringing that Ferrari to victory.
    Beeing how it is, HAM pushed VER of the track (fair enough, this is F1, that happens), was lucky to stay on the track, was extra lucky to get a red flag so they repaired his damage without any time loss, and was the fastest driver left in the fastest car on this particular track.
    I think this is just their first shunt of the year, and it’s only a matter of luck who stays on track.
    Also, BOT getting out of his way and PER beeing out of points, I don’t think it impossible we see BOT in Merc and Russel in the Red Bull next year.

  48. At least more people are seeing the dirty megalomaniac that is Hamilton.
    Really?
    So? Your pure as the driven snow. Squeaky clean. Max.
    Has never ever caused an incident or accident in his hitherto unblemished & totally faultless F1 driving career?

  49. On cold tires, driving off the normal racing line with less grip, with a heavy car, approaching that corner with that angle with that speed…. there was no way Hamilton could make Copse without going off. That he couldn’t make the apex and understeered(?!) into Verstappen says it all. I expected more from a 7 times DWC to be honest. It was indeed a combination of frustration and desperation with the need to have track position that made Hamilton commit to this action. 1 ended up winning and 1 ended up in hospital. There’s no way any sane person could be happy with the outcome. I have no problem with hard racing, but Hamilton went over the line. He got a penalty and penalty points on his license, so it’s very clear who was at fault here. That Hamilton and Mercedes still put the blame on the ‘very aggressive’ Verstappen says a lot about them. And to be honest I think they’ve just lost a whole lot of sympathy with a lot of people.

    The ‘drive safely’ remark from Hamilton to the crowd is laughable.

    One more thing: I thought the crowd were cheering Max for getting out of his car and appeared to be ok, but I’ve also read comments about them booing verstappen. So which one is it?

    1. But he did make copse without going off, at that angle and speed. We all saw it, unless you think that the contact with Max defied all physics and helped him around the corner despite visible nudging him counter clockwise.. off the corner?

  50. We should look at the 1st lap incident from the 1dt corner of that lap. Vers bumped into lewis continuously throughout the 1st lap. Even on the straights. He was overly aggressive. Lewis decided today that he would not back down. Then end result: lewis wins verst crashes. Sad but true. Verst needs to race more and. Bully less. Drivers wont always give way to him.

    1. Interesting comment, max kisses Lewis’s tires and Lewis smashes into his and you think max deserved it?

      In the old days I would say yes, but in this season he has driven fair, he overtook outside track limits and gave the position back, everytime he overtakes he gets along side,

      Lewis hit his rear man, think about that,

  51. I’m very disappointed by Hamilton. This is not how a true sportsman should act. A desperate move by a frustrated man.

    1. Agreed, he should have tried to run him off the road going down Brooklands, or throw a give way or crash move into turn six. But Max got there first.

  52. And that penalty was a joke. It should have been at least a 10-sec. Stop&Go.

  53. Why does the article not mention that Hamilton’s line was different in both situations?

    In the fake-news era, the journalist repeating the comments of public figures has a responsibility to give their readers an accurate view of the situation. As the stewards said, Car 44 left a lot of room to his inside and ‘did not avoid’ a collision with Car 33. Later in the race, Hamilton’s Mercedes could be seen on the very inside as he put it alongside Leclerc’s Ferrari.

    1. Exactly. Leclerc used the same line as Verstappen as xan ve seen on pictures from above. The difference is that Hamilton wasn’t on the apex in the battle with Verstappen, but was in the overtake on Leclerc.

    2. Pretty convenient for an HAM-favored forum isn’t it?

  54. When Lewis made the move on that corner for all other drivers but max he made sure he used all the kerb that was available, but for the move on max he intended to use none, his car would hit Max’s even if he gave more room,

    The driver in front gets the racing line, it’s a fair rule, Imagine if it was the Olympics and the runner behind pushes the other guy over, would you really support the guy behind?

    Max was Infront, and took the racing line, Lewis forced the contact,

    A 10 second time penalty is nothing, a drive through penalty would be correct, I’m certain if Max had hit Lewis the punishment would have been worse.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      19th July 2021, 23:15

      A 10 second time penalty is nothing, a drive through penalty would be correct, I’m certain if Max had hit Lewis the punishment would have been worse.

      Exactly. In the end it was a barely inconsequential penalty. If anything, it happened to fool many people with his (not so hard fought) recovery making him look like a hero. But on that he’s just emerged as a Schumacher-style stained victor, actually.
      But I do admit this type of incident is leading to a more exciting season (for lamentable reasons on the sportsmanship side of it with too much dirty antics, but it is what it is). The relishing part of it is that Lewis vs. Max is a true rivarly, not a forced one like Seb against Lewis who just made the latter and his team look better in the end, too much talk without a lasting fight. I know it’s not near the end of the season yet, but one way or another everybody now believes that Max and Red Bull will be there with chances of becoming WDC and WCC until the end. It now seems very reasonable to expect.

  55. Only thing Leclerc did was saving his own life.

  56. Not being an a** but Albon is right, this guy is a sore loser .

  57. Good to hear that in retrospect he learned from it and now knows what he did wrong :p

  58. Hamilton has to explain why he did not hold the apex, why he was off line, moving to the predictable line of Verstappen. Exactley this is why he got the blame. Everything else is inferior argumentation to talk something straight.

    1. Well, I would go even further. I am more than willing to leave the whole incident behind since these things happen. All Lewis had to do is day; Wow, that didnt work out they way I had in mind. I got onto the dirt side of the track and under braking understeered into Verstappen. Nothing I could do, my apologies. He still would have gotten 25 points. He still would have had respect from people out of the UK

  59. Leclerc was so scared he went off on his own… And Hamilton shouldn’t talk about Respect.. He had none for his Victim.

    1. Ruthless Schumacherian behavior from a once great athlete. 51G just to make a point you can’t handle the fight anymore and will resort to dirty tactics. Can we please compare the penalty points of both gentlemen? Lewis needs to keep his mouth closed and work on his skills instead

    2. I think Ham showed Max the same amount of respect that Max shows to others, whether its threatening to punch someone, issuing a stream of foul abuse at Lando and others for daring to be on the bit of track he wanted during practice, doing his get out of the way or crash dives on others whilst his team boss smirks about it, or publicly poking fun at the way someone looks; in the same manner his prospective father in law is renowned for.

  60. This totally confirms his entitlement attitude. Leclerc showed respect. Well, Lewis I have got news for you. There are pictures on the web showing Leclercs and Max positioning in that corner and as it turns out Leclerc initially left less space for you than Max did. So it is not Max or Leclerc. On these pictures you very clearly see your car is positioned totally different. With Leclerc your car is on the kerbs. With Max it is 1,5 meters off the apex. The only one not showing respect was you Lewis. You clumsy man. You know there are cameras everywhere these days.

    1. Please watch passes at that turn from the last 25 years of modern f1, if you are lucky you might find similar passes Verstappen and other drivers have made from further back than this pass attempt, but they didn’t have an overly hard defensive block driver like Verstappen slightly ahead asking for a crash.

  61. I’m not a fan of Hamilton of Verstappen. I know each fanboy has their oppinion to support their favourite driver, but to me those split oppinions also prove it was the most purest form of ‘racing incident’. Hamilton was alongside enough for most defending drivers to give more space than Verstappen did. Verstappen has a history of overly aggressive defensive driving, and this was overly aggressive given the speed they are doing in that turn, his onboard shows him correcting the steering wheel because he was cutting into the apex when Hamilton was alongside enough for such a high speed turn. Verstappen didn’t give enough space for how he attempted to make the corner, be did not take into account Hamilton’s momentum and his turn angle or how other drivers over the history of this turn would give more space to avoid contact. Big risk for Verstappen defending that hard at such a high speed and it failed for him. this was all split second decisions for both drivers. Horner and Wolff proved themselves to be politicians and not sportsmen with their messaging to the race director and post race Propoganda. For me as a race fan I appreciated this dual, but am disappointed at the penalty and the disgusting political messaging, which Verstappen as the younger guy is at fault too, for critisizing Hamilton’s post race celebration = swap the drivers, I bet Verstappen wouldn’t have asked the amount of questions about how his competitor is as Hamilton did.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      19th July 2021, 16:30

      Completely agree. How can you have such a lack of self reflection that they didn’t understand something like this was going to happen at some point. You can’t keep driving with blinders on hoping opponents always jump out of the way. Especially not when Hamilton had the move done.

      And then the hypocritical propaganda for his already foul hooligan fanbase, Horner was full of praise when Verstappen pretty much put Hamilton in the wall in Spain and only Hamilton’s racecraft helped him dodge that bullet.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        19th July 2021, 22:49

        Especially not when Hamilton had the move done.

        Looks like you didn’t even bothered to watch it again.

  62. lexusreliabilty?
    19th July 2021, 13:51

    I must say- given Max’s reputation of not yielding, I find it ammusing that he, his fans and RBR are up in arms. Of course, let’s all forget that Max nearly put Hamilton in the wall early on, drove Hamilton off the track in Imola (which I thought was fair game), drove Bottas off the track in Monza, Ricciardo in Baku, divebombed Hamilton in Spain etc etc. At the end of the day Verstappen is no saint- I actually felt Hamilton was being too much of a gentleman in wheel to wheel- well yesterday he gave Max his own medicine and he didn’t like it. Neither did his fans nor his team. Glad he’s okay though and bring it on for the rest of the season.

    1. Max maybe a competitive driver, but he never gave anyone a 280kmh push resulting in 51g on the body.

      1. lexusreliabilty?
        19th July 2021, 18:25

        @petterson
        Well if Hamilton did it deliberately you may have a point- as it was he didn’t, he gave no quarter just like Verstappen and Verstappen came off worse. Now to the fundamental point- Vertstappen has given people a shove as I gave examples- he even attempted to stick Hamilton into the wall at 200+ kph a few corners before- so to use your own logic, to show your selectiveness, Max did actually do what you accuse Hamilton of doing in a more dangerous zone of the track. So you might want to re-evaluate your bias.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          19th July 2021, 22:56

          Well if Hamilton did it deliberately you may have a point

          Prabably it was not deliberate but was still a careless/dangerous move more than any move that Max did at least in recent years, maybe even during his entire career. If you show me which dangerous moves from him were worse than that one by Lewis I’d rather appreciate it, as the debate go somewhere.

  63. Wow, 260 comments in a day… This race got the crowds out in more than one way.

    What strikes me is that people forget that these drivers have split-second decisions to make under extremele stressing circumstances with very little peripheral vision… When they had the F1 streaming events on earlier last year, the first-time gamers were banging against each other like crazy… That’s exactly what we would get if we would put all you keyboard warriors in present day F1 cars.

    Moreover, can we please stick to facts a little more? The bias in so many posts is just plain painful. For example, Max keeps being positioned as the irresponsible rogue driver while Hamilton is the smart and calm nestor. Fact is Hamilton accumulated far more penalty points over the past year than Verstappen has.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      19th July 2021, 23:00

      I think that’s the reason why other drivers didn’t strike their finger in the wound. Even being clear that Lewis did cause the collision, we need to recognise things like that aren’t rare to happen when racing at such high stakes. Anyway that Lewis v. Max fight caught fire, that’s for sure.

  64. Max can easily makes a similar response when he is back and inside a curve, all RBR team laugh and enjoy after hamilton’s DNF and that’s it. Is is all over , no need to talk.

    1. He can. Same as the outside guy can lift as soon as he detects it, dropping back and getting an instant tighter turn, allowing him to clip the back wheel of the guy on the inside, spearing him head first into the barriers. I imagine you would get a little twinge seeing that?

  65. Considering that it was LH’s fault I find the penalty a joke. A penalty is supposed to be a punishment but it was not because we all know that without Versttapen in the race and with Bottas doing his usual 2nd driver job for the team, LH has no problem in winning any race with a 10 second “penalty” given right at the beginning of the race. It has been like that since Rosberg retired. This time it was close because, for whatever reason, Leclerc was unexpectedly fast.

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