Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2021

Hamilton wins British Grand Prix despite penalty for colliding with Verstappen

2021 British Grand Prix summary

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Lewis Hamilton won a dramatic British Grand Prix, passing Charles Leclerc with three laps to go after colliding with Max Verstappen on the opening lap.

Hamilton was handed a ten-second penalty for colliding with Verstappen at Copse corner on the opening lap, taking the championship leader out of the race and causing it to be red flagged.

Despite the penalty, Hamilton was able to recover from fourth place to catch Leclerc and pass the Ferrari at Copse with three laps to go.

Leclerc took second for Ferrari, with Valtteri Bottas taking the final podium position in third.

At the start, Hamilton pressured Verstappen for the lead with the pair running side-by-side through Abbey. Verstappen defended, but Hamilton launched further assaults on his rival into Brooklands and Luffield, with Verstappen able to remain ahead.

Hamilton got into Verstappen’s slipstream through Woodcote and pulled to the inside of his rival as the pair entered the 280km/h Copse corner. The pair collided, with Hamilton’s left front wheel hitting Verstappen’s right rear wheel, pitching the Red Bull driver into a spin.

Verstappen crashed heavily into the barriers, bringing out an immediate safety car. Despite a reported 51G impact, Verstappen was able to climb out of the car and walk into a waiting ambulance unaided. He was evaluated in the medical centre before being taken to hospital for further examination.

The race was red flagged to recover Verstappen’s car and repair the barriers while the stewards confirmed they would investigate the accident. The clash had allowed Leclerc through into the lead by the time the safety car was deployed, meaning the Ferrari driver would lead the field for the standing restart.

When the race did restart, Leclerc held onto the lead, ahead of Hamilton and Lando Norris, who passed Valtteri Bottas to move up to third place. Sebastian Vettel spun his Aston Martin exiting Luffield, but avoided the barriers and was able to continue.

Hamilton pursued Leclerc, but was informed he had been awarded a ten second time penalty by the stewards for causing the collision with Verstappen on the opening lap.

Leclerc was able to keep a comfortable lead over Hamilton, until he began complaining that his engine was cutting out on lap 15. Hamilton immediately began to pick up the pace and put pressure on the race leader, but was unable to get close enough to challenge the Ferrari.

Hamilton eventually pitted on lap 27, serving his ten second penalty and rejoining in fourth place, behind Bottas as Norris. The Mercedes driver quickly passed the McLaren of Norris to move up to third behind his team mate.

Bottas was given a direct team order not to fight with his team mate and then later instructed to allow his team mate by into Stowe, which he duly obliged, moving Hamilton back up into second.

With a ten second gap to make up to Leclerc, Hamilton began eating away at the Ferrari’s lead. Hamilton was within DRS range of the leader with just under four laps to go as the Silverstone crowd roared in support.

Hamilton was able to get in the slipstream of the Ferrari through Woodcote and moved to the inside of Leclerc. While Leclerc kept ahead through the corner, he understeered wide and off the circuit, allowing Hamilton through to take the lead.

Hamilton held on to take the chequered flag and reduce Verstappen’s championship lead to just eight points.

Leclerc finished second, with Bottas rounding out the podium. Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth and fifth for McLaren with Carlos Sainz Jnr taking sixth in the second Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso finished seventh for Alpine, ahead of Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon with Yuki Tsunoda taking the final point in tenth.

Sergio Perez took the fastest lap in 16th place to deny an additional point for Mercedes having pitted for soft tyres.

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2021 British Grand Prix reaction

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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364 comments on “Hamilton wins British Grand Prix despite penalty for colliding with Verstappen”

  1. Expect Hamilton as a ‘star’ Verstappen as ‘struggler’ and Leclerc as ‘the rest’ on this site.

    1. Seriously, if anything the penalty was a bit harsh – Verstappen has a steering wheel as well.

      1. Did you not see the replay where he corrected the wheel and Lewis wasn’t ahead?

      2. Lol. If it was the other way around, I wonder how the UK public would have fumed.
        Or had they cheered for Max and say ‘racing incident’ ? Don’t be a hypocrite

    2. Two corners before the accident Hamilton got ahead but allowed Max when he dived down the inside.
      The incident, Max saw they were wheel to wheel yet decided to take more speed into the corner then turn in.
      Hamilton got the penalty, the same reason he got previous penalties when going wheel to wheel, because he tried to back out of an accident.
      The same scenario with Leclerc, and he still tried to back out but Leclerc chose to run wide.

      1. As well as Hamilton knows that track, he knows if you pull that move at Copse, there is most like going to be a crash.
        He should have backed off.

        1. Why? So that Max can continue pulling that same stunt that he always does?

          1. Aaron MacPhee
            18th July 2021, 20:00

            If Lewis was so far alongside, why did he slow up mid-corner? Might he have considered that his front on Max’s rear was safer than front on front…for him? Wise choice, Lewis!

          2. So… is it ok that Verstappen crashes with Raikkonen, Riccardo, Leclerc, Vettel (am I forgetting anyone?) but it seems like the dutch can´t be touched… people need to leave him room… So Verstappen is aggressive and never lifts his foot on a dispute… but is Hamilton supposed to yield? Isn´t this yielding attitude for number 2 racing drivers? Hamilton is been trying to avoid crashing with Verstappen for a while, always thinking about the points, the championship… being conservative.

            And when Hamilton decides he will no longer act like the mature one and Verstappen acts like he always does they crash! Simple as that. Two Wolves… What´s the big deal?

            Senna and Prost taught us how to settle this things decades ago… and babies can go to their cradles to cry…

          3. Because the Red Bull was in front at that point and thats why if you understand the rules.
            It was an act of a driver who was willing to risk someone’s life to win the race.

        2. In reverse situation Max would do exactly the same Lewis did. When I see Max fighting for positions he plays dirtier than Lewis. Maybe Hamilton was to blame. But I think he expected Max to do the normal line that would be him enough space. Max is leading the championship. He’s way more experienced than a year ago. He knows what to do for winning. We saw how he started yesterday… His start at Monaco… Is a champion’s driving. But he needs to think better before doing things like this. Look at Vettel at Ferrari… He could have beaten Mercedes. He had the car… Had the driving… But lost on bad decisions.

    3. Hehehe enjoy 👍

    4. @trib4udi I couldn’t disagree more with you. 50-50 incident, so the 10-sec penalty was undeserved.

      1. Lewis had to be close to the apex. He took the corner wrongly because he was focused on Max in stead of racing line. Being in that corner on the inside, it can’t be taken full gassed. Lewis Made a mistake, took a risc, was wrong, understated on the dirt, should have been punished stronger. His comment afterwards to call Verstappen aggressive was a total shame. In the meanwhile the ex F1 drivers from all times blame Lewis.

        1. Verstappen should shared responcibility for the collision. He first showed Hamilton the outside, then dodged out wide to the leave the inside, then squeazed that inside line. All in the lead up to that corner. Hamilton was carrying a lot of speed on that inside line. Verstappen then continued as if he alone had the racing line. Knowing Hamilton was on his inside, he drove to close that door, when he could instead have driven wider. In my view Verstappen invited the collision. He had mirrors but chose to ignore them.

          In the reverse situation if hamilton was the championship leader with 33 points in hand, you can bet he would have driven more conservatively and not taken any unnecessary chances. This is the one lesson that Verstappen has yet to learn.

    5. You forgot Sainz who will also be a star

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        18th July 2021, 19:54

        @balue For what? Finishing ahead Russell? Nice irony, as well. Haha!
        By the way this time he was half-decent, even though he wasn’t to blame for the Russell incident, had a botched pit stop, recovered relatively well from all those but nothing brillant as he qualified many positions behind Leclerc and wasn’t too special in race pace. Even if his fanbase ask there’s no way he’ll be a star this time round.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          18th July 2021, 19:58

          *pre-qualified or whatever it’s called now: Sainz ended up five positions below Leclerc in the one-lap qualifying (9th vs. 4th in Q3), without any major incidents affecting their results.

        2. For being a firm site favorite together with Hamilton

    6. Leclerc will be a star, you can bet everything.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        19th July 2021, 0:22

        They will probably try to put some ice over the wounds and call both Hamilton and Verstappen as star performers, as well as Leclerc (an obvious choice) and maybe Alonso, if they remember what happened in the sprint race and notice as well his best result possible in the main race – 7th place – for Alpine. He finished six positions better than the expected if there was no incidents (Alpine remains the 7# fastest car), profited on a subpar performance from Gasly and also on Vettel returning to his normal recent form, that is, spinning off by himself.

  2. Interesting tactics!

    1. Good point, don’t know the answer though.

    2. Interesting tactics from Max indeed. Too bad for him, he lost. Next time, he will think twice.

    3. Indeed. Lewis talking about Verstappens aggressive racing style while he catapulted 3 Red Bulls off the track in exactly the same way and was penalised all three times. And now he is even sending peers to the hospital. FIA, really?

  3. Hamilton is objectively the luckiest man alive. He overextends in a duel, clash, Verstappen retires, Hamilton soldiers on. Gets called into a pistop for damage, doesn’t take it, red flag. Lenient penalty (it just is). Lando Norris is in his way, really slow stop. Leclerc is in his way, engine issues. Verstappen ends up in the hospital, Hamilton on the top step.
    I can’t be the only one bemused by this insane turn of events.

    1. It’s also really, really good for the championship.

      1. It is. But indeed a extremely lenient penalty. Taking out your biggest opponent and only receive 10 sec.
        It was not deliberately, but extremely aggressive. Winning at all costs.
        What he did passing Lec was the way he should have acted.
        Hitting a rear tire with a front wheel and totally missing the apex. Clearer is hardly possible.

        1. William Jones
          18th July 2021, 17:34

          The problem is, we all wanted consistency in penalties. We all said we hated it when the outcome of an incident was taken into consideration and we all howled bloody murder when identical incidents were given different penalties because the stewards decided that one incident had a worse outcome than another.

          Well, now we have what we wished for, the incident was an avoidable collision, the penalty is fixed at a 5 or 10s. Full stop. This is what we all wanted, back when Vettel was given a massive penalty for missing a corner and getting a stupidly mean penalty because he blocked Ham in Canada, handing Lewis the undeserved win for such a milquetoast infraction

      2. @barryfromdownunder I agree with you entirely. But for those fans who want to watch a tight season, this helps.

      3. Then please dont xx

    2. Well I didn’t say that… just that he got very, almost silly lucky

      1. He’s been so absurdly lucky over the years, lucked into great teams through his childhood, lucked into McLaren, then lucked into a struggling merc just as they turned it around. Almost every time he makes a mistake he manages to luck his way into minimising it, every wheel to wheel clash it’s the other car that is spun or sent off track. How lucky can one guy be.

        I’m beginning to think… maybe there’s something more too it than luck? No.. wait a sec, hear me out… maybe if he knows how a car works, like, really really well, he can know how to drive good, ah, I’m just talking nonsense. It’s obvious he’s just got a better rabbits foot than everyone else.

        1. Don’t say that you’ll hurt the hammie fans

        2. Anyone who is so much of a fan of any one entity in sport that they get actually hurt or upset by words is beneath my consideration.

        3. No please do carry . You lot are hilarious and have cheered me up no end after a terrible 10 days with Covid. Medicine for the soul xxx

      2. Is everyone here whooshing, or was my sarcasm that undetectable! Maybe I’ve lived amongst the English too long!

        1. That was meant as a reply to DeanR

    3. Adam (@rocketpanda)
      18th July 2021, 17:23

      It’s just unbelievable.

    4. Maybe he’s lucky. Maybe he is good at driving. Hard to say, really. Maybe he’s just been really, really lucky.

      99 times.

      1. @redearedrabbit
        If you dismiss someone being lucky 99 times, then logically you also dismiss someone being unlucky 99 times.
        Now go and look how people live in Afganistan, Iraq or Somalia and how they suffer utter misery their entire lives and tell me one cannot be unlucky 99 times.

        1. Philip Taylor
          18th July 2021, 18:45

          Do you even understand probability? Your assertion is complete nonsense. By definition you are far more likely to be unlucky than lucky. That’s the whole point of luck,

        2. So your logic is that because lots of people around the world are born into unimaginable hardship, Lewis Hamilton got 99 wins by luck? I really don’t see how the two are connected.

    5. @hahostolze

      I’ve been thinking for a long time that it isn’t just luck. I think he might be good enough to know when a crash will benefit him and when it won’t. Or at least to really stack the odds in his favor.

      It’s one of those things that’s awfully hard to tell without statistical analysis. But it sure does seem like Hamilton comes out and top more often than not

      1. @slotopen,@hahostolze, but normally it’s the front suspension that breaks in a front hits rear wheel clash.
        Secondly for all the “not fair” complaints, maybe not, but it’s F1 and more than 1 championship has been won in the last race by just such an accident, sounds like an exciting race.

    6. Great race. Best in awhile.

    7. @hahostolze Yeah it’s classic Lucky Lewis. You even forgot Leclerc getting dirty air at the end from the backmarkers just as Hamilton was about to suffer from Leclerc’s, erasing the disadvantage.

      1. He also got DRS from them…..

    8. You want lucky? Verstappen tyre blows out in Azerbaijan. He DNF’s. Hamiltion should have regained the championship lead under safety. They instead call a rolling restart. Unprecedented. Hamilton only had to finish to regain the championship. Instead he obliguing drives his car into a run off area, citing a stuck button as the cause. That’s show biz for you.

      1. It was a standing restart. I can’t even begin to imagine why you’d lie about that.

        1. Thanks for the correction.

          The standing start is what was unpresendented from a safety car situation with just 2 laps remaining.
          Had it been a rolling start, what followed could not have occured.

          when’s a lie not a lie, when its a mistake made with no gain.

          1. Its hard to remember al the lies and storys you make up i guess.

    9. Just imagine being a Hamilton fan this season and still managing to be angry at Verstappen/Red Bull/the FIA when every bit of luck possible this season has been in favour of Hamilton.

    10. @hahostolze don’t forget his first championship was a gift from the Force India who literally let him pass on the last lap of the lap race, whereas the entirety of the rest of the season that didn’t happen.

      1. Force India? Did you think before typing this?

        1. I forget, was it Toyota?

    11. Max needs a good long look at how Nico Rosberg was treated by Lewis Hamilton several times.

  4. Gah, this was like the 2012 British GP, a Ferrari getting reeled in by a faster car on hard tyres with nothing to answer with.

  5. a disgrace!

  6. Strange situation, well deserved penalty but a great drive after.

    1. I would say an easy drive after that, it’s a merc. The rest is F1.5.

      1. Yup. Bottas is crap with no backbone, Perez was nowhere. McLaren are on their own with Ferrari most races. VES is his only rival that can match him. Lets be honest he cruised that. Always makes out he’s struggling when that’s complete BS. Then makes out he’s #blessed.

      2. @maxv yes that was practically a given, even with the 10s penalty. Surprised it took so long.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          18th July 2021, 21:44

          @balue If only Verstappen could win so easily while driving the fastest car. He would be winning every race this season, but in reality he won only half

          1. @f1osaurus You mean win over a Ferrari with engine trouble and a second a lap speed advantage? Yes I bet he would.

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            18th July 2021, 22:10

            @balue Yes but Verstappen yet again managed to find himself not winning the race. So funny that. He had the fastest car for every race and yet he won only half. Pretty much on point for his whole career, although the car advantage is really quite big at the moment. And still he manages to cheat on tyre pressures or crash off for other reasons.

            Hamilton could have gone off together with Verstappen on one of the dive bombs that Verstappen pulled on him. But Hamilton would take the smart route and won the race. Or at least come P2.

            And indeed Leclerc DID take the smart route, took home P2 while Verstappen ate gravel.

          3. @f1osaurus

            but Verstappen yet again managed to find himself not winning the race

            Yes because he was punted off on purpose by a cheating Hamilton

          4. F1oSaurus (@)
            18th July 2021, 22:19

            @balue Hamilton was alongside and even tried to brake out of the situation when he saw verstappen was going to ram him anyway.

            Just see how Leclerc took P2. Verstappen could have save his race too by having a brain. His car is so much faster, why does he need to take these dumb risks. It’s just like how Vettel crashed away 2017 and 2018.

    2. Give Russel drive that merc, he will definitely won as well.

  7. Only BLM…

    1. @carwars
      As should be. Next.

    2. Rodric Ewulf
      18th July 2021, 18:45

      BLM hypocrisy in nutshell!

  8. Sam (@undercut677)
    18th July 2021, 17:21

    Even when prompted to do so by the interviewer. I guess Max’ life does not matter to Lewis.

  9. Hard to defend that move from Hamilton, especially on the first lap when the car is so heavy and tires are not fully up to temp. Also that corner on the inside is very slippery, there was no way he didnt understeer, so basically he trusted Max to take a wider line or even go off track.

    1. And then he would have moaned Max went off and demanded a penalty…

      1. IMO he did exactly the same with leclerc, who then tried to give him more space and ended up sliding off track.

    2. Max showed him the inside then squeezed him. Maybe Max was thinking Lewis’s car would just dematerialize.

      Max was the one weaving all over the shop knowing that Hamilton had the pace. He knew Hamilton had his slipstream and kept trying to shake him off. As the championship leader Verstappen should have been looking to minimise the potential for collisions. Instead he drove like the other car wasn’t there.

      1. in hindsight, Max could have taken a wider line just like Leclerc did and probably would have lost a place or 2. But he would have still been in the race. Although it’s not something that Max does, especially in a fight with Lewis. Anyway, most important is that he’s (hopefully) healthy.

        1. After Weaving and Squeezing a driver off the Racing Line the Least you can do is Not Turn Onto him

  10. It was a racing incident. There was no heavy contact. Hamilton got the penalty. Move on bus.

    1. No heavy contact, are you serious? Go 51G into a wall then

    2. Regardless of whether HAM was right or wrong, the health of your competitor is (obviously) more important than any race, especially when you may have well caused it.
      He should have at the very least asked about Max and expressed his well wishes especially when prompted by the interviewer.
      Other than Brits and his fans, I suspect his reputation took a major hit.

      1. He did ask over the radio but let’s overlook that shall we

        1. Yes, he asked initially.
          He should have inquired after the race knowing the G forces Max encountered.
          Hamilton knows the track and how dangerous that move at Copse.
          He could have killed him.

      2. Most Brits don’t actually like him. He comes across as a narcissist which generally isn’t liked by the British public

    3. If you consider 51g’s to be “no heavy contact” then sure.

  11. I’m guessing Bottas thinks he still has a chance for the ’22 Merc seat.
    Also, if it wasn’t obvious why Hamilton would preffer Bottas to any other driver in the 2nd Merc seat, it is now. I mean, what driver wouldn’t preffer an overobedient wingman to a proper contender.
    Still, great drive from Hamilton, although he did create his own chance.

    1. I would imagine if you knew you were likely to lose your seat, being a great team player makes you more employable than defying your team. I still hate it, I still think if team orders were banned Bottas would have a title to his name and I wish it could be banned again… but I just have to get more into the cycling frame of mind with f1 to be fair, having a support will help the team more than a rivalry.

      I still want all drivers to race each car once, selected randomly. If you have separate championships for drivers and manufacturers, then break the link!

      1. Russell in the same boat is unlikely to follow team orders. Russell in the same boat will put himself first before team orders. So what if the ferrrai ahead wins, just so long as the doesn’t come second to his team mate. This is what mercedes has to consider.

        1. I firmly believe (with no evidence) that Lewis signed for two more years so that Russell can have 2 years of learning from him – I don’t think Russell is supposed to be a no. 2 to Hamilton, I believe he is supposed to be his successor. But it’s only my belief.

    2. That was a perfect #2 weekend from Bottas. He’ll still be here in 2022 as Lewis’ wingman.

      1. I’d say the arguement is the same for Perez at this point after the fastest lap joke today

  12. One thing this result does is spice up the championship! Only 7 points between them and the rivalry has gone up a level! It’s going to be a rollercoaster for the rest of the season! The gloves are well and truly off!

    This could go down to the wire and be one of the greatest seasons for many a year! As a F1 fan, bring it on!

    1. @burden93 I don’t think so. If Mercedes could get this major upgrade working this well after just one practice session, and go from needing a barn door rear wing to getting by with even less wing than Red Bull, the pendulum has well and truly swung, and a majority of fast tracks to come.

    2. Davethechicken
      18th July 2021, 18:16

      +1 LB
      Looking forward to their next wheel to wheel encounter!
      I expect more broken carbon fibre, tears and accusations!

    3. The Championship is alive and kicking again; great for us fans.
      But it feels forced as its only due to 2 unlucky DNF’s by one driver and a lucky Italian escape by the other.

  13. THAT WAS SENSATIONAL!! As for that penalty, I think it was fair, it could have gone either way. The championship is still tight!

    1. I sometimes get the vibe Liberty uses bots to create hype, with no sensibility to the circumstances…

    2. I agree with you it was very exciting. A shame that Max was out and I hope he’s well, but that was an epic drive for the win. Of course, if you hate Lewis for whatever reason you certainly didn’t enjoy that. If you enjoy racing, as in overtaking people to win, that was a good one.

    1. How many times are you going to repeat that? What does it have to do with the issue at hand. Pretty lame.

      1. Political pawns often try to pretend that Black Lives Matter means ‘Only’. It’s best to ignore them, they thrive on creating controversy

        1. I was wondering how long it would take before it gets ugly, turns out, not very long….

  14. We’ll need to look at the two battles, because I think Max would not have made the corner had they not crashed. But I assume that because it was a lap one incident, that the penalty was only 10 seconds. I thought it was going to be a 10 second stop and go given that Verstappen could not continue since the stewards have been basing off penalties on the outcome of the driver who came off worse, or both of them.

    1. I mean Leclerc vs Hamilton did not end up in a crash.

      1. Just because Lewis didn’t dive in the same way, just look at how he approached both drivers

      2. RandomMallard (@)
        18th July 2021, 18:32

        @krichelle Hamilton is much closer to the inside of the corner with Leclerc, much more than he ever was close to on Verstappen (he was on the kerb when fighting Leclerc, he was much further away from the kerb with Verstappen). And the line on the inside Copse seemed pretty dirty on lap 1 (Hamilton seemed to try and turn in, but the car didn’t respond), and it was probably a bit cleaner by lap 50. And looking how Hamilton turned in on lap 1, I (and the Channel 4 team) don’t think he would have made the corner had they not crashed. At the end of the day, as a Red Bull fan, I accept the 10 second penalty as probably the correct one. Possibly a drive through but I don’t think that would have made much difference considering the pitlane configuration here.

    2. Max was on the racing line and was way better in fast corners. He would have made it easily.
      Lewis on the other hand was on the dirty side, look at the dust coming from under his car. So heavy he always would have understeered and did so.

      1. Also Leclerc wasn’t weaving all over the track, or attempting to pincer Lewis, he drove with respect.

        1. RandomMallard (@)
          18th July 2021, 18:36

          Max made one move to the inside, to defend, as he is entitled to do, and then Hamilton changed his mind and switched from going around the outside to going down the inside. Max, seeing where Hamilton now was, moves back to the outside of the track, as he is entitled to do. In doing so, Max gives Lewis more room, and is also on the racing line. As Hamilton is moving to the inside, Max is already moving away from the wall. That is not squeezing an opponent.

      2. I do not believe there was understeer. I was a squeeze-move and Max had no choice/decided to go for it. That’s the way they both drive when they squeeze others of track to overtake (sometimes, not always for sure). This will happen again. I watch the race on RTBF in Belgian and they are very impartial: they were not surprised by the incident between Max and Lewis because they drive hard and doll not give up. If Ham had done the same move on another driver, they would have yielded and none would have complained. I personally do not like moves, but they are not uncommon
        What is uncommon is not yielding. With hindsight, Max should have let Lewis pass and overtake him later (or settle for second). It would have been a much better outcome for him and a more exciting race for us.

        1. RandomMallard (@)
          18th July 2021, 18:40

          I think there was understeer. If you compare it to Lewis’ movements against Leclerc, Hamilton turns less against Leclerc but gets more turning effect, while on lap 1 he struggles to turn in despite putting in a little bit more steering lock. Channel 4 (the UK’s free to air broadcaster which shows only Silverstone live, and who have David Coulthard and Mark Webber as pundits) suggested that this was down to the dirty line on the inside at that point in the race.

  15. The cracks keep building up for Lewis. He’s defenitely another person under pressure. Great to see. Interesting battle ahead.

    1. Davethechicken
      18th July 2021, 18:22

      Maybe Max won’t be as confident wheel to wheel after that impact. He has been known as the most aggressive driver on the grid from his early races, will he change his super aggressive approach?
      Will 51g impact affect his confidence?
      Will Hamilton be more inclined to not back out? I think so to both and more collisions are highly likely between the two!
      They championship is certainly simmering nicely.

      1. I agree with you. More to come…

      2. They say you don’t know how good a driver you are till after you’ve had your first real big crash

    2. This action made me think of Esteban Ocon who wanted to unlap himself. Kind off low level driving eagerness from Lewis.

  16. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
    18th July 2021, 17:25

    While i don’t fully agree with the severety of the penalty (a 10s stop and go would be more appropriate imo), Hamilton indeed drove a great stint on the hards and took the win. But…

    I consider Hamilton’s celebrations after the end of the race as quite inappropriate. Hamilton has been extremely vocal when something wrong happens to him(he has even quoted Ali G…) and today he caused a massive crash, sent Verstappen to hospital and celebrated like crazy… Sorry but I can’t respect him for today’s race…..

    As for the rest, what a horrible race for Perez and Vettel. Alonso took the maximum from Alpine and Mazepin beat Schumacher

    1. GtisBetter (@)
      18th July 2021, 17:31

      Just making up penalties on the outcome and depending on who gets hit is a slippery slope, where you might as well throw a dice everytime you give a penalty, cause every precedent goes out of the window.

    2. It would have made quite a difference if Lewis just admitted he was caught of guard by understeer because of the dust he collected on the inside there. Then it’s a racing incident and the 10 sec are fair. Its the lack of sportsmanship from such a great athlete that’s also puzzling me. In the end it is just two guys not giving in to each other which is inevitable when power transitions from the old to the new generation. Lewis is barely holding on.

  17. Christian Horner in an interview just now called Lewis an 8 time world champion…..what a slip of the tongue.

  18. Given that its Copse corner, one could argue Lewis nearly killed Max.

    And that realisation makes the whole race feel rather shocking.

  19. If the positions had been reversed, would Max have gone for the corner? Based on history, the answer is “Of course!”

    1. Sam (@undercut677)
      18th July 2021, 17:32

      And the same criticism would apply if he did but he didn’t so you comment is useless.

      1. Well, no, it’s not useless. As Jolyon Palmer just pointed out, when Max gets his elbows out Lewis has generally backed off.

        If the stewards are going to give 5 and 10 second penalties for racing incidents, as they have for the last couple of years, so be it. But I’ve been watching F1 for 50 years, and I preferred it when penalties were only given for intentional infractions (Senna, Prost, Schumacher come to mind.)

        1. Max never had his elbows out on the fastest corner. So yes, hard racing by both untill now. Lewis showed his hand.

          1. I call bias on this call. Max is an aggressive racer, that’s his thing in every corner. Personal beliefs, I would think Max would’ve taken the same line at Lewis. If he’d gone off the same arguments would have been held, just in the opposite direction. I believe Lewis would have given him room though, and fought back later in the race. All is moot anyway, the championship is ablaze, and maybe Max might be the one more ready to yield in future moves. Game on.

        2. Phil,

          Hamilton passed 2 other drivers there without contact.

          1. while not understeering into them and hitting the apex

  20. The guy punted his main championship rival and even got a free repair for the self-inflicted damage to boot! Good news the championship is back on, the bad news is that the integrity of the sport is what is at stake.

    1. Davethechicken
      18th July 2021, 18:32

      IVAYLO, Your years of experience seem to have abandon you. You seem emotionally attached to this.
      Integrity of sport in question?
      Please.
      Schumacher broke his suspension in Aus and crashed into Hill as he overtook, integrity maybe then.
      This was a racing incident and both parties were at fault ? Bizarre statement of yours.

      1. Wouldn’t years of experience make one more likely to be emotionally attached to Formula One? What is your point here? Of course I am emotionally attached to Formula One, watching it is a longstanding pastime for me. Why are you here? Where did I say both parties were at fault? Clearly Hamilton was at fault, as was also the view of the stewards. This penalty was incredibly light. When Brundle first reported a 10 second stop and go, that felt about right for the transgression committed.

        1. Davethechicken
          18th July 2021, 19:38

          In previous threads you claim you have such vast experience and imply that no one else can have a view different to yours.
          Your statement about this accident undermining the integrity of the sport, is in my view, absurd.
          I have highlighted a very obvious example.
          I could also ask what are you doing here.

  21. @barry bens
    Christian Horner just had a slip of the tongue in post race interview and called Lewis an 8 time champ…he’s already conceded. Bend the knee. Sir Lewis rules.

  22. Ricciardo shouldn’t be included when he was outraced by his teammate. Putting together a half-decent race doesn’t equal a ‘brilliant drive’.

    1. It was a brilliant drive from Daniel. If you don’t see it, well, can’t help it.

      1. Finishing 5th when his teammate was 4th and much quicker on pace? Yeah I’m not seeing it.

  23. Silly by Verstappen going outside Hamilton when Hamilton has been hitting the last cars who tried it and several before that. It’s practically a signature of his now. I believe even on purpose this time as he knew full well he was never going to make the inside line at Copse but didn’t back out of it so he meant to push or hit Max off. He and the team kept saying he was just a DNF behind, and that’s how it’s done. A time penalty means of course nothing compared to the points gain.

    1. @balue The only difference being was that Max was AHEAD of Lewis and not behind. The fact that Lewis hit the rear wheel of Max’s car is a clear indicator of that!

      1. @maddme Of course. I even said outright I believe it was done on purpose. I would guess even pre-planned should he be behind by that point as it was all about the first lap.

        1. @balue apologies, I didn’t see that post…

        2. Well, then we agree that Hamilton must be a “master-mind” driver – toying with a championship rival for half a lap only to get him to a pre-planned position at a pre-planned corner just as he wanted. :))) He even pre-planned the angle to make sure the car would be undamaged in case there was no red flag. (Maybe even Mercedes produced a tougher end-plate just to make double-sure he makes it unharmed)

          Really…

          1. No, he knew from the sprint race exactly how it was going to go down, and what he did wrong, so set up for the straights more this time since he had a whopping 10kmh advantage. You can be sure he had run it through his mind countless times.

            He also knew that if he didn’t get it done early on the first lap, the Red Bull corner advantage would mean game over, so if they were side by side at Copse he knew exactly what to do if he was on the losing inside and it worked perfectly.

            But like I said, Verstappen or someone in the team should have seen this coming so that was poor.

          2. Yeah sure he slimmed down aero/drag (which was forbidden by the way before the sprint) for one shot on the first lap, irregardless what that change would make to tyre wear etc… Sounds believable.

          3. His speed advantage was from Friday qualifying where he was fastest and Verstappen slowest in the speed trap: https://www.racefans.net/2021/07/17/the-make-or-break-tyre-call-facing-drivers-in-f1s-first-sprint-qualifying-race/

            As we saw in the sprint, as soon as Verstappen could use his higher downforce to go faster into the corner sequence Maggot, Beckets etc, and Hamilton suffer from his low wing setup there, it didn’t matter if Hamilton had the much higher top speed. His chance was at the first 2 straights, and he made sure it paid off.

            Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton. Just can’t take to come off second best and will hit their opponents.

      2. F1oSaurus (@)
        18th July 2021, 21:46

        @maddme Wrong. Who is ahead or behind is measured at the braking point. They were wheel to wheel before, but Hamilton braked earlier (or at all). Just watch the video of the incident. You barely see Verstappen’s front wheel to the left of Hamilton.

        1. @f1osaurus From the onboard on Max’s car, you could see Max starting to take the corner, see Hamilton there, open his steering and then put his lock back on for the apex. He left more than a cars width for Hamilton and at that stage, Hamilton should have realised he was never going to manage the corner at that position and speed.

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

            @maddme You see Hamilton alongside Verstappen. So Verstappen did not have the rights to the racing line.

            Yet Hamilton braked and yes that means he washes somewhat wider. The tyres can make the car turn or slow down. If Hamilton needs to slow down more to prevent a crash then he goes a bit wider. Verstappen should not have tried to hit the apex with Hamilton right next to him.

        2. @f1osaurus Whatever! Hamilton was determined to be at fault for the incident by the stewards, given a penalty and points for it as they dreamed that he had caused it.

          Hamilton was guilty of some very dirty racing and sent his competitor out of the race..

          1. F1oSaurus (@)
            19th July 2021, 8:26

            @maddme Yeah it’s ridiculous they faulted Hamilton for that. There was nothing dirty about it. They both took risks and neither would back down.

  24. A victory was justice for the unjustified penalty for an opening lap racing incident.

    1. Are you really serious?! He forced an overtake, then he was awarded by the local fellas a red flag session, then his team mate – the biggest puppet in the history of F1 – gave up his place. Plus, he had the fastest car. No win to be proud of, that’s for sure.

      1. Stop sounding racist @mg1982. Puppet??? Really should the car be handed over to you.

        1. @sigwa Where does he sound like a racist?

          Do you even know what race he is, or do you just assign things you don’t like to race, making you the racist?

      2. One red flag is misfortune, two is carelessness.

    2. @jerejj
      You’ve lost the plot, there was no justice in this race. There’s no justice in a driver taking out his major championship rival and putting him at risk of injury and then winning the race. It’s a grave injustice for the majority of F1 fans.

  25. Hamilton as the attacker was in the wrong, he wasn’t fully alongside and Max had a right to take the racing line. I would have liked to have heard some more contrition in the interview after the race, it leaves a sour taste. Should have been a drive through.

    I’m also disappointed with some of the comments today about him trying to ‘kill’ Max. That’s a very strong accusation and just disappointing more than anything.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      18th July 2021, 17:48

      @john-h it depends on your definition of the racing line – is it the full width of the track? Didn’t Lewis save Max on the previous corner from a collision? How many times has Lewis saved Max from a stupid collision on a corner?

      1. Don’t be a child. Or maybe you really are a child and know nothing about F1.

        1. i stay young..(try it, it will lighten your burden)
          But still stupid comparisons about fictional events does not make it a reality.
          This season Lewis and Max had about the same amount of respectful passes borderline. This one does not deserve any respect. Lewis crossed the line.. probably not intentional. But still. He showed his real character.

      2. No @freelittlebirds, the racing line is not the full width of the track at Copse. I think you’re referring to Luffield (my favourite part of Silverstone), actually the entry there is slightly less defined there are a few quick lines. Agreed Hamilton did go a little easy on Max there but it doesn’t mean what he did at Copse was correct. He wasn’t fully alongside. Much better to ease off and wait until Hangar Straight, I feel the adrenaline got the better of him tbh.

    2. F1oSaurus (@)
      18th July 2021, 21:48

      @john-h At the braking point they were fully along. Hamilton had his front wheel next to Verstappen. He did not have to yield.

      The fault that Hamilton makes is that he tries to avoid a crash and brakes. Then he drops back and comes to look like the culprit since then the other driver drives his rear wheel over his front.

      1. I see your point @f1osaurus and indeed even over halfway alongside might have been sufficient, however even with braking he still understeered into Verstappen in a way he didn’t do with Leclerc. Lap 1 cold tyres, he wasn’t able to control the car and Max left him enough room on the inside, he may have tried to back out of it but it was too late. This is why I believe Hamilton is at fault, however he didn’t do it deliberately, which is what some others on this site (not you of course!) seem to be making out.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          19th July 2021, 8:29

          @john-h Well Verstappen decided to drive through Hamilton, so Hamilton had to brake. What happens when you need to brake? Driving 101 teaches you that you need to open the steering lock and you will wash wider. Then Verstappen taps Hamilton’s wheel. So it;s really Verstappen’s own doing that Hamilton had to run wider.

          if you look at the overhead shots Hamilton is on for the apex. The problem was that Verstappen also went for the apex with a car right alongside him! That’s just despicable driving, yet again! After Imola, Spain, Austria, Verstappen has to realize that bullying people into staying behind him is not going to always work.

      2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        18th July 2021, 22:13

        @f1osaurus yep, I don’t understand why the stewards can’t see the fact that he’s easing up to avoid a crash while the other driver is pushing forward without a care in the world.

  26. RBR must understand WCC is not about single driver..
    Inconsistent Perez will be the real margin between winning and losing.
    Having perez in top grid will change Merc approach of the race

  27. +1 Exactly. Verstappen does expect everyone to back off, at some point Hamilton wasn’t going to back out – he was basically all over Max in that opening lap, faster, gave room when he was ahead into one corner, and in the eventual incident at Copse went for a gap. Audacious/dangerous, it’s a fine line. I think from his demeanour he knows that the extra aggression went his way this time and led to a big crash for Max. But should he have backed out? I thought it was marginal. Hamilton picked up a slipstream and was faster. He’s not going to back out of a pass. Had he gone round the outside, would Max have actually given him room? Doubtful. We’d have seen Hamilton off instead. That has been the pattern so far. So Hamilton opted instead for this inside. Seen from above, Hamilton seems almost level and visible to Max before the latter turns into the apex, but at that speed maybe all to quick. Either way, I don’t blame Hamilton for finally upping the aggression.

    1. It still was a driver error. Het totally missed the apex
      Lewis is cracking under pressure and shows how far he will go to win.

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

      @david-br I think a large factor (that C4 seemed to pick up on but by the sounds of it Sky missed) is that Hamilton was on a dirty bit of the track. Hamilton did try to turn in, but the car was very unresponsive. It’s still a misjudgement from Lewis, but in my opinion it does show that it was not a deliberate move. At the end of the day I think 10 seconds was the right penalty.

      (For context I am a Max fan, feel free to disagree with me)

      1. @randommallard No, I agree with you, I think it was a miscalculation by Hamilton. However Max has been more than happy to send Lewis off track when he goes round the outside, and the stewards have been fine with those kind of moves, so I got why Lewis went for the inside line given he picked up a slipstream, was faster and was looking for the pass. Racing incident or ten second penalty, unsurprised it was the latter.

        1. RandomMallard (@)
          18th July 2021, 18:45

          @david-br Realistically, I think it was a miscalculation by both drivers with hindsight. Max lost 25 points by not yielding, as opposed to only 7 if he did, if even that. However, only Lewis’s miscalculation went against the rules. I expect if Lewis hadn’t yielded in Spain and had been spun/taken out for example, then Max would probably have got a penalty, but Lewis did yield because it kept him in the race (that said, Spain was quite a different scenario than today, and Hamilton’s squeeze of Verstappen on the inside was pretty aggressive in itself that day)

  28. It’s during these moments that you learn whether your belief is truly a belief or simply pretending to make yourself look more magnanimous than you really are

  29. I like him 😜 Silverstone likes him. 🤪

  30. Did Hamiton get penalty points like others did in Austria?

    1. RandomMallard (@)
      18th July 2021, 18:15

      @balue He has received 2 penalty points. Which I think is a little leniant tbh. I would have guessed 3, considering Lando got 3 for his red flag infringement in Baku quali, and I think that is pretty harsh (although I’m not sure if they were *mandatory* points or not). He is now on 4 in a 12 month period, with 2 from Monza last year to be removed after 6th September, between Zandvoort and Monza

  31. Hamilton: a bad winner and a worst loser. The shame of F1

    1. For Hamilton read Schumacher who was considerably worse.

      1. No, read hamilton, this was shameful.

  32. I just want to say. I like Lewis. Max has been racing hard his entire time in F1, he just hasn’t had it blow up in his face recently. Moan all you want but with 32 points in the lead against the guy next to me, I’m conceding.

  33. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    18th July 2021, 17:46

    Masterclass by Lewis!

    1. @freelittlebirds Crashing your competitors off is masterclass for the hardcore Hamilton fans. I’m not surprised a bit.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        18th July 2021, 18:26

        @balue the crash was all Verstappen’s doing… He could have easily avoided it.

        1. @freelittlebirds ..and Hamilton could of course not?

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            18th July 2021, 18:50

            @balue Lewis has already avoided a dozen collisions with Max and that is just this season. Even Brundle, who’s practically running an anti-Hamilton campaign, said as much.

            It’s not Lewis’ job to ensure that Max can take any line he pleases around any corner. If so, every driver should just drive to a stop whenever Max comes around to ensure that Max doesn’t make any more errors. I have no problem with Max being aggressive and I like his style but he needs to clean it up and he’s gotten away with so many dangerous moves. I hope this server as a wake up call and he starts driving better. It does NOT help that Horner doesn’t advise him to smoothen his style slightly…

          2. It’s not Lewis’ job to ensure that Max can take any line he pleases around any corner.

            bless

          3. F1oSaurus (@)
            18th July 2021, 21:50

            @freelittlebirds Indeed. It’s about time Hamilton put an end to the bullying.

        2. @freelittlebirds
          Then why Hamilton was penalised ?

          1. F1oSaurus (@)
            18th July 2021, 21:52

            @tifoso1989 Indeed that was wrong. Or otherwise, why was Verstappen not penalised for his dive bombs and fault blocks? Just because Hamilton didn’t drive into him and yielded to Verstappen, Verstappen gets away with it. Then it’s called a bold move. If Hamilton had crashed into Verstappen then it would have been Verstappen getting the penalties and Hamilton being crashed out of the race. Hamilton is just a bit smarter than Verstappen. Just like Leclerc. Leclerc took P2 while Verstappen took gravel. It still makes the penalties wrong though.

    2. Oh yes, the overtaking manoever on Bottas was amazing! Wasn’t it?

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        18th July 2021, 18:26

        No, but catching Leclerc was amazing.

        1. If he did that on ver nothing would have happened. Ver would still in the lead and Lewis chasing.
          But Lewis decided to do it completely missing the apex on the dirt with a heavy car. Rookie error by Lewis

  34. is it disrespect when Max pushes lewis off the track? or is it hard racing?

    1. But he did not pushed Lewis of the track. Lewis did.

  35. Ye gods. These comments.

    Look, what Lewis did was aggressive and a bit reckless. What Max did was defend extremely, perhaps unnecessarily, hard. Lewis was alongside Max on the approach, Max gave him room, Lewis didn’t pinch the apex and Max turned in tighter, tried to correct, then turned in tighter again and they still made contact.

    I don’t think either driver was wholly to blame to what happened, but both of them played their part in making the accident happen.

    The impact looked very fast and I hope Max isn’t hurt. I don’t think either driver will be happy with what happened, but I don’t think you can say either driver is entirely at fault. They both had opportunities to avoid the accident and neither of them did.

    1. Max let enough room for a cars width. Lewis understeered as a result of a heavy car and a badly performed pass.

      1. Davethechicken
        18th July 2021, 19:21

        Lewis also left enough room for a cars width!!!
        Don’t be getting all emotional erijke.

        1. yeah, on the inside…

        2. The difference is that Hamilton is the attacking car, he needs to be able to control his car which he didn’t do, he clearly understeered into Max.

    2. Fair assessment, Max is not faultless here, but the vast majority of the blame lays on Lewis. The fact that he didn’t even say a word after the penalty was awarded pretty much confirms that he knew he was at fault and the 10 sec penalty just made him a happy camper.

    3. It would have made quite a difference if Lewis just admitted he was caught of guard by understeer because of the dust he collected on the inside there. Then it’s a racing incident and the 10 sec are fair. Its the lack of sportsmanship from such a great athlete that’s triggering some reactions. In the end it is just two guys not giving in to each other which is inevitable when power transitions from the old to the new generation

  36. Baiter is the right work but it seems to change when it sends

  37. “Penalty”

    He is lucky to get the second lightest penalty. And 2 instead of the usual 3 points to the license.

    Also he got the go ahead to set the engine in a higher mode, resulting in imediate more speed to overtake norris and leclerc. Not mentioning bottas, as that was a CLEAR teamorder

    1. What’s your problem with team orders? Hamilton had the pace to win it and Bottas didn’t. Of course he moved over to help his team mate in a team sport…

    2. Do you feel as indignant at RBR retiring Checo yesterday so they could switch to a lower DF rear wing?

    3. Penalties are not luck. Someone decides them

      And those two “extremely lucky” red flags are not lucky either. The new HIA rules are, each time the fellow needs repairs (by deliberately hitting his rival i.e. attempted murder) a red flag is in order.

  38. Well when you have Lewis as the POS he is it makes it hard

  39. Correct result in the end. Chandhok’s analysis on Sky F1 was spot on. Racing incident.

    1. Obviously you have proof of this!

      1. You think he does his analysis for free?

    2. RandomMallard (@)
      18th July 2021, 18:11

      That is indeed how capitalism works…

      (Poe’s law disclaimer here)

    3. The steward s have all the info. They penalize d Lewis for a good reason.
      He was to blame.

    4. @newfangled
      The fact that you’ve mentioned Sky F1 would just dismiss your argument.

        1. So salty! Love to see it.

  40. Tainted win, plain and simple!

    1. Indeed, leclerc far more deserving.

  41. AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
    18th July 2021, 17:50

    What a brilliant race that was! For those saying he punted Max off, please watch the replay and look at how aggressively Max defends his position throughout the first sequence of turns even going off track on a couple of occasions. As for the accident, it was a pure racing incident. Hamilton was alongside Max on the run up to Copse. You can’t expect a driver to just back off and lay a red carpet for the rival to take the racing line. Max had too much speed, he would have never made the corner anyway. Watch Ham’s overtake on Lec to see what would have happened to Max had he tried to take the corner at that speed on a full fuel tank. The only reason why the stewards felt obliged to give him a penalty may have been because of the severity of the incident considering Max had to go to the hospital.

    1. “Max had too much speed and would never have made the corner anyway”… arrgh.. The corner is a flat out corner for the guy on the racing line and only Max had that!

      1. AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
        18th July 2021, 18:25

        With 110 kgs fuel load, cold tyres at the start, and Lewis on the inside, he would either have to risk contact taking the apex (which he did), or lift off (which I doubt Max’s brain is capable of doing), or run wide at the corner and give the place to Lewis having gained a lasting advantage. You are welcome.

        1. RandomMallard (@)
          18th July 2021, 18:53

          @asleepatthewheel But Max didn’t go for the apex. He left Lewis plenty of room. If you want an example of going for the apex, there was Sainz moving across on Grosjean in 2018 seemingly much more aggressively than Max did today (Max’s front-facing onboard hasn’t been released yet, but from the view from Grosjean and Hamilton in each incident it certainly appears this way). I’ve got a proper analysis of than incident in a comment below because that was quite a complicated move.

          And I’m not sure Max would have had to give the place back. It does look like Lewis would probably have gone off the track as well if there wasn’t contact, as he does seem to get some horrible understeer on turn in due to the dirty track (Channel 4 noticed this, it appears Sky didn’t). This is what I think eventually leads to the contact, and why I think it was a misjudged move from Lewis, but nothing worse than that (seriously other commenters/Max fans, stop saying it was deliberate)

      2. Davethechicken
        18th July 2021, 19:23

        You can’t take the racing line with a car already on your inside.

        1. Seriously, please look at the footage. There was plenty of space for Lewis had he positioned his car 1,5 metres to the right on the apex where he should have been aiming for in the first place. He just understeered into ver because of the dust he collected. A mistake that can happen with high fuel load on a first lap. So, racing incident and somewhat light penalty. Don’t understand why some have to defend Lewis on this. Do understand why Lewis wont back down since he is known to need off track tactics to prevail (to the extent Rosberg decided it was not worth it anymore).

  42. The driver isn’t watching the same feed as you are. He did ask earlier if Verstappen was okay and was told yes.
    I don’t see how he would have known Max was taken for precautionary checks

  43. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    18th July 2021, 17:55

    60:40 for Lewis at blame but ultimately a racing incident. Lewis had to get his elbows out, Max is very aggressive and like that anecdote Brundle always says about Senna. Senna would put you in a position where you let him through or crash, you let him through and that’s it you’re his forever.

    The penalty was fair but the result of 25 points swing for Lewis intimately not fair, but that’s life and racing. Loving this championship and this will heat things up even more for the rest of the season.

    1. Very fair view and one I completely agree with. This has been bubbling up after all the hard racing this year. Max was ultra aggressive in his weaving yesterday and again at the start today. Not moaning about that, but it’s a fact they were racing very hard.

      Ultimately had that been Verstappen and Perez or Hamilton Bottas it wouldn’t have happened. Both drivers would have approached it differently and been more forgiving. Hamilton had the opportunity as he was basically level just before the corner. He had the right to go for it and Max had the right to defend. Both decided to do so aggressively and the outcome was decided.

      Hot headed from both but in the eyes of the rules it’s probably more on Hamilton. I think the penalty reflects this.

  44. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    18th July 2021, 17:56

    *ultimately

  45. Man, leave the browser and go take a breather and some beer. You are sorely needing it.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      18th July 2021, 18:03

      In racing it happens, but not that it’s fair. And again Lewis dropped sportsmanship by even suggesting Max was to blame. This year when something critical happens it’s either because Lewis binned his car and got saved and/or Max losing points as well by an external factor or Max alone having very undeserving misfortune and losing the highest amount of points. An incredible unbalance on luck affairs up to now this season.

  46. Rodric Ewulf
    18th July 2021, 17:57

    One of the most undeserving victories for such a long time. Again it comes cheap for Ham after a careless move which sent Max into the barriers and to be checked up in hospital. At least a greater time penalty would be nearly a good measure, as it’s shameful for a driver to win this way and his opponent who had a way smaller share of blame for the incident goes out in a dramatic way like that and with 0 points. It’s an outcome way more unfair than if Russell had started in front on Sainz after pushing him off track.
    But it is what it is. On the bright side the championship fight is on like never before, but it’s mystifying how a championship contended (Max) deserved to be about 40 points ahead the other (Lewis) if not for incidents in which the former had little or no share of blame at all. It reminds me a bit of Raikkonen vs. Schumacher in 2003, when the Ice Man got the fame as luckless. Even though it seems that Lewis has a secret agreement with Lady Luck more than Max being plainly unlucky, what back in 2003 it was more down to Raikkonen’s outright bad luck, many times in 2021 championship fight it feels like the situation in which one finds trouble for himself while the other is found by trouble.

    1. Completely agree, really disappointing, I don’t mind hamilton winning at silverstone as he’s often strong here etc. but this is not the way.

  47. What struck me most is how Hamilton was celebrating this victory like it was a hard battle and that he won fair and square. All the talking of him and Mercedes about a clean fight is not true. Otherwise your celebration would be different.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      18th July 2021, 19:07

      @ruben it was a fantastic victory for Lewis! It just shows the vast difference in racing skill between Lewis and Max. Max made a rookie mistake and got what he deserved (thank god he was unharmed). Lewis got a penalty he didn’t deserve but was able to push and win the race!

      1. Against a f1.5 car? Please. Leclerc was great though.

      2. @freelittlebirds
        People like you are the reason why Hamilton fans have a bad name.
        Such delusion, such zealotry.

        1. We don’t care 😁

    2. F1oSaurus (@)
      18th July 2021, 21:56

      @ruben Hamilton was unjustly bullied by Verstappen, then got a penalty for staying his course, dropped to P4 and won the race. Yeah that does sound like a hard fought win any driver would be happy with.

      Verstappen should look at how Leclerc reacted to a car on the inside line through that turn. He would would have easily won that race afterwards seeing how much faster his car is.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        19th July 2021, 3:03

        “When Hamilton wins, it’s only him. When Hamilton loses, it’s only the car.” striking again. Fans as predictable as @f1osaurus will just change the discourse according to the current convenience. Where had you been after the Monaco GP when Hamilton was nowhere and Bottas was fighting for a podium? Not on sight, like your idol. A similar thing happened in the last few races, just appeared here a few times to say “Red Bull will dominate everything” despite that not telling the full story but now unsurprisingly you come back with this copy-paste comments almost without logical reasoning within it, just regurgitating things seen in the media or said by Hamilton/Mercedes.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          19th July 2021, 8:31

          Well Verstappen had the fastest car all season long and he won only half the races and half the poles. So yeah, it clearly is not just the car

          1. Rodric Ewulf
            19th July 2021, 21:00

            Not true, no matter how many times you repeat that, a lie don’t magically becomes the truth just because of endless shouts of it. You need to distort many aspects of reality about this 2021 title fight to hold that sort of opinion. Mercs begun the year having the upper hand on race pace and tyre deg, only after Red Bull had an edge on those aspects. The simply fact that Lewis managed to score (sprint race) pole position, fight strongly with Max until pushing him off track and come back for victory despite penalty are all evidence of Mercs strength after an upgrade that you’ll need to ignore. All long runs this year bar few cases with particular circunstances were pretty close between them, with margins of debate on which team is the fastest in raw pace, but simply pointing a big gap leading to dominance by one of them is simply close your mind to facts surrounding and embracing the most convenient narrative. Closing matched teams this year, with ups and downs but still always a surmountable gap, has been the reality since the beginning. For instance: And this is British media, no reason to portray Mercedes as dominant to enhance Max or something like that. There’s no reason also to speculate that Red Bull became much better than Mercedes along the season, with tight constraints in development only marginal gains can be achieved through upgrades anyway until the shake up in regulations of 2022. And both teams had their upgrades, not reasonable to assume that a recently dominant team facing a relentless challenge but not yet overthrown would just watch their empire burn and doing nothing against it. Too much baseless narrative is needed to assert that.
            But if you want to just ignore everything that contradicts your beliefs and cling on to your fantasy world of god-in-earth Lewis, go ahead then. It’s seen by many as kinda cool in the world nowadays, like flat earth, queer theory and anti-vaxxer believers.

          2. Rodric Ewulf
            19th July 2021, 23:23

            @f1osaurus Not true, no matter how many times you repeat that, a lie don’t magically becomes the truth just because of endless shouts of it. You need to distort many aspects of reality about this 2021 title fight to hold that sort of opinion. Mercs begun the year having the upper hand on race pace and tyre deg, only after Red Bull had an edge on those aspects. The simply fact that Lewis managed to score (sprint race) pole position, fight strongly with Max until pushing him off track and come back for victory despite penalty are all evidence of Mercs strength after an upgrade that you’ll need to ignore. All long runs this year bar few cases with particular circunstances were pretty close between them, with margins of debate on which team is the fastest in raw pace, but simply pointing a big gap leading to dominance by one of them is simply close your mind to facts surrounding and embracing the most convenient narrative. Closing matched teams this year, with ups and downs but still always a surmountable gap, has been the reality since the beginning. For instance: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/the-data-that-shows-f1-is-much-closer-in-2021-with-red-bull-ahead/5923625/
            And this is British media, no reason to portray Mercedes as dominant to enhance Max or something like that. There’s no reason also to speculate that Red Bull became much better than Mercedes along the season, with tight constraints in development only marginal gains can be achieved through upgrades anyway until the shake up in regulations of 2022. And both teams had their upgrades, not reasonable to assume that a recently dominant team facing a relentless challenge but not yet overthrown would just watch their empire burn and doing nothing against it. Too much baseless narrative is needed to assert that.
            But if you want to just ignore everything that contradicts your beliefs and cling on to your fantasy world of god-in-earth Lewis, go ahead then. It’s seen by many as kinda cool in the world nowadays, like flat earth, queer theory and anti-vaxxer believers.

          3. Rodric Ewulf
            19th July 2021, 23:24

            @f1osaurus Not true, no matter how many times you repeat that, a lie don’t magically becomes the truth just because of endless shouts of it. You need to distort many aspects of reality about this 2021 title fight to hold that sort of opinion. Mercs begun the year having the upper hand on race pace and tyre deg, only after Red Bull had an edge on those aspects. The simply fact that Lewis managed to score (sprint race) pole position, fight strongly with Max until pushing him off track and come back for victory despite penalty are all evidence of Mercs strength after an upgrade that you’ll need to ignore. All long runs this year bar few cases with particular circunstances were pretty close between them, with margins of debate on which team is the fastest in raw pace, but simply pointing a big gap leading to dominance by one of them is simply close your mind to facts surrounding and embracing the most convenient narrative. Closing matched teams this year, with ups and downs but still always a surmountable gap, has been the reality since the beginning. For instance, an article in the next post.
            And this is British media, no reason to portray Mercedes as dominant to enhance Max or something like that. There’s no reason also to speculate that Red Bull became much better than Mercedes along the season, with tight constraints in development only marginal gains can be achieved through upgrades anyway until the shake up in regulations of 2022. And both teams had their upgrades, not reasonable to assume that a recently dominant team facing a relentless challenge but not yet overthrown would just watch their empire burn and doing nothing against it. Too much baseless narrative is needed to assert that.
            But if you want to just ignore everything that contradicts your beliefs and cling on to your fantasy world of god-in-earth Lewis, go ahead then. It’s seen by many as kinda cool in the world nowadays, like flat earth, queer theory and anti-vaxxer believers.

  48. Opening lap was a racing incident but still mainly Lewis’s fault, he oversteered and took out Max into the wall at high speed, 10-sec penalty was fair really but I also didn’t really like Lewis winning at the same time.

    Great drive by Leclerc though, the guy led every lap in that car until being passed at the end.

    All in all just a bit anticlimactic.

  49. And the last time Hamilton’s team-mate wasn’t Bottas, he lost the championship.

  50. this is gonna be spicy for the championship. max would be even more aggressive and we may see 2 of them trying to send each other out on lap 1 more.

  51. Forget that one. This is better. This. Is. A. Disgrace. (After Lizzy Truss MP)

  52. RandomMallard (@)
    18th July 2021, 18:06

    Right here’s my take on the incident (I’m a Red Bull fan, but above all else I want a close and interesting but fair championship):

    I (somewhat naturally as an RB fan, feel free to disagree), don’t think Max did anything wrong by the letter of the rules. He left at least 1 car width, likely more, and that is what the rules say he has to do. He may have made a miscalculation, but he can’t know exactly where Lewis was, and Lewis gets a lot of understeer.

    Which brings me on to Lewis’ side of the accident. As I say, Lewis is on the dirty part of the track and picks up a lot of understeer. He is trying to turn, but the car is not being particularly responsive. He brakes to try and get around the corner, although C4 were saying that he still probably wouldn’t have made the corner even without hitting Verstappen. Lewis was not ahead like he originally claimed (although I believe he has since retracted this, it’s just adrenaline), but he was partially alongside and Verstappen gave him room. My take is that Lewis made a misjudgement about how much grip there would be on the inside line, but please, please stop suggesting that it was deliberate. I know not everyone likes him but I think it is clearly a miscalculation and mistake, not trying to cause and accident.

    I expect the incident many will draw parallels to is the Grosjean and Sainz at the same corner in 2018. The situation is slightly different here: Sainz is overtaking on the outside, while Grosjean is defending on the inside. They make contact and both go out, and the stewards rule no further investigation. From what is appears from comparing Grosjean and Hamilton’s onboards (Verstappen’s forward facing onboard hasn’t yet been released I don’t think, so I can’t compare it to Sainz’s), Sainz gave Grosjean less room than Verstappen gave Hamilton. This puts a bit more blame on Sainz then than Verstappen today. However, mid-corner Grosjean gets a snap of oversteer which is what eventually puts him into Sainz. Of course this also puts blame on Grosjean. However, you could argue that there was likely dirty air affecting Grosjean as he was in the middle of the pack after a SC restart, while Hamilton didn’t have any car in front of him. Also there is still the mystery of the strange ‘clunk’ audible on Grosjean’s onboard at about the same time as his oversteer. Which one was the cause and which was the effect I don’t know, or they may have been completely unrelated.

    The other incident I think could have parallels drawn to is Hamilton and Raikkonen at Village in 2018. Apart from being a different corner, they are really quite similar incidents in my opinion. Raikkonen draws level with Hamilton, then drops back in the braking zone (as Hamilton did today), and then can’t turn into the corner as expected (then it was due to Raikkonen’s lock up, today it was likely the dirty part of the track). The car on the inside then hits the one on the outside, who’s line sees them start wide and turn into the corner later on. For the 2018 incident, Raikkonen picked up a 10 second time penalty, so for me personally it’s nice to see some consistency there.

    At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you take into account with the penalty. Do you assess the incident in isolation, or do you assess the consequences of the incident (the big difference being that today Verstappen was out on the spot, while in 2018 Hamilton dropped to the back, but was still in the race and finished second, ahead of Raikkonen who was third). I think 10 seconds was fair. I might have given a drive through, but the nature of the Silverstone pitlane means that may not have been much more of a loss. Congrats on Hamilton for a very good recovery though. And please, please, please stop saying it was a deliberate move.

    1. RandomMallard (@)
      18th July 2021, 18:09

      Also I’m quite surprised at Mercs pitstop. They seemed to serve 12 seconds before they actually got on with changing anything on the car. I don’t think it was just a slow stop, because everything looked quick enough, and I was counting in my head and I reached 10 and it was still a while before they did anything. For comparison, when Raikkonen had his 10 second penalty here in 2018, the mechanics were stationary for 10.25 seconds, so clearly managed to have a better timekeeping system for the penalty.

    2. Nice to see a fair, balanced, reasoned comment. Such comments are in short supply today.

    3. @randommallard

      My take is that Lewis made a misjudgement about how much grip there would be on the inside line, but please, please stop suggesting that it was deliberate.

      He is the most winning driver of all time known for his wheel to wheel action, but as soon as he is about to lose out he suddenly can’t judge the most basic things and hits people left right and center with all of them by some weird coincidence losing out like Albon for example? No. He is in fact so good he knows exactly what he’s doing, and it’s more than obvious he knew full well he was never going to hold the inside line at Copse, he just stayed on it to push or hit Verstappen off and it worked beautifully. He said this weekend he was going to bring out his lion and go all guns blazing and he made a kill as promised. But as I said in my earlier comment, it was poor by Verstappen to not know this was bound to happen, especiaslly when Hamilton and Mercdes were eager to point out they were just a DNF behind.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        18th July 2021, 18:53

        Yes, Lewis had a careless attitude towards the risks involved and was fully or nearly fully to blame, the only concession is that Max was a little bit naive knowing who and where he was fighting this outcome would be very likely.

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

        @balue I think it is clear with hindsight, in my opinion, that the understeer was a big factor in this incident. I’ve had a look at Lewis’ onboard from this incident and his overtake on Leclerc. When overtaking Leclerc, he put in less steering input but got a much better response from the car. Against Max, he *seems* to steer a bit more, but the car doesn’t really want to turn in. I think suggesting that it was deliberate is too serious and I don’t think is the case. These things happen from time to time.

        1. I expect you’ll find most of the people claiming he deliberately took max out are the same folk who criticise or attack Lewis regardless of what he does or his achievements.

          A front-rear clip in at situation could just as easily have screwed Hams steering, suspension or front wing, the Indra that it was deliberately calculated to achieve the result it did is nonsense

      3. @balue
        Totally agree, as soon the pressure mounts he is exposed. You never see Fernando Alonso for example doing something similar to a rival despite being a fearsome competitor.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          18th July 2021, 19:17

          It’s not down on pure luck that Fernando has been invloved in very few incidents over the last years. I’ve said before Verstappen is having an Alonso-esque charge for the championship, but here’s one difference: Fernando of today would probably test luck a little less heavily on this specific incident of Max vs. Lewis at Copse, even though he’s totally capable of doing that masterclass of start like yesterday. Experience is key. We cannot expect Max to have this kind of race IQ just yet, even though his level on this department is already close to Fernando’s in 2010 or so. As for Lewis, well, he’s deceiving himself if he thinks he’s still a clean wheel-to-wheel racer, looking more and more like Vettel 2018 onwards, and his penalty today proved too cheap.

    4. Thank you.

    5. F1oSaurus (@)
      18th July 2021, 21:59

      @randommallard

      As I say, Lewis is on the dirty part of the track and picks up a lot of understeer.

      He only goes wide after Verstappen taps his front wheel since that would have cause oversteer which he then needs to correct by going wide.

      Hamilton was alongside and then actually braked when he saw that Verstappen was going to drive through him even though they were alongside.

      Verstappen really only has himself to blame. He should learn to yield in a lost position and salvage the race from there. He has a much faster car and would have won anyway. Just look at Leclerc. He simply finished P2 rather than crashing off.

      1. RandomMallard (@)
        18th July 2021, 22:02

        @f1osaurus As I’ve put on another thread, the stewards determined that Hamilton was on a line hat would not hit the apex, which is where he is entitled to space, before the collision.

      2. RandomMallard (@)
        18th July 2021, 22:05

        And Lewis brakes because he is on the inside of a corner which is only just flat out from the wide line, and definitely isn’t when you’re on the inside line there.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          19th July 2021, 8:32

          @randommallard As Hamilton literally explains, he had to brake because he sees that Verstappen has decided to drive through him.

          1. RandomMallard (@)
            19th July 2021, 8:51

            @f1osaurus But he would have to brake to get around the corner anyway. That’s how Copse is. Even Max on the wider outside line lifts, and ensures he leaves plenty of room on the inside for Lewis to use. The problem is Lewis’ car doesn’t turn in as it *should* have on a clean track. I don’t think this is entirely Lewis’ fault and under no circumstances do I think it was deliberate, but I think it’s obvious he made a mistake. However, I think he received a fair penalty, which he served and he still won the race. I can’t deny that it was a fantastic drive after the restart.

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            19th July 2021, 10:01

            @randommallard No he did not. Don’t be daft. Even with having to brake and being hit by Verstappen he still made the corner just fine.

            The stewards penalized Hamilton for perhaps slightly missing the apex. Now you make it should like he was completely out of control. Stop the nonsense already.

            the stewards made the mistake. It doesn’t matter if Hamilton hit the apex or not. he had the rights to the racing line. Verstappen had plenty of room. Yet he decided to turn into Hamilton.

            How on earth can they acknowledged that Hamilton was alongside and still fault him for perhaps going half a meter wide?

            Anyway, never mind I actually don’t even care anymore what you have to say.

          3. Rodric Ewulf
            22nd July 2021, 3:59

            It’s quite funny how sir Still-I-Whine fans always comment the same way on this site like herd behaviour, they never drop not even a single argument no matter how many times it was refuted. They just ignore the refutation and go to another post with everything reset, the same cheap talk without anyhting new. They seem to never learn, and they not even try to justify long enough their points of view after seeing opposing arguments. As soon as they can, they’ll move on pretending that had reached a undisputed enilghtment and then continue to wind up their “truths” like if the whole world should bend on Lewis’ disposal and everyone is trying to stab him on the back, paranoid stuff of the worst type.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBrWMQ3uhRo
            Graphical analysys: Lewis was found not in the apex’s direction through the corner without really completing the pass on Max, thus being held responsible for the collision. He was about half a car alongside, so not enough to have preference of the inside line. Why does Max need to back off if he’s still ahead? Not that Lewis couldn’t go slightly more close to the apex to avoid the collision either, as the normal procedure for proper racing. That’s the reason why the stewards came to the conclusion of applying the penalty. Here’s the document text with their statement.

            “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.”

            Now if you want to contest that, feel free to point another articles on the sporting regulations that could come to a contradiction on the rules or a range for interpretation. If not, accept the stewards ruling. If you refuse to do so and keep up with this empty reasoning protest all you’ll do is spreading around delusional stuff of sore loser fans, crying for a lost cause.

          4. Rodric Ewulf
            22nd July 2021, 4:00

            @f1osaurus
            It’s quite funny how sir Still-I-Whine fans always comment the same way on this site like herd behaviour, they never drop not even a single argument no matter how many times it was refuted. They just ignore the refutation and go to another post with everything reset, the same cheap talk without anyhting new. They seem to never learn, and they not even try to justify long enough their points of view after seeing opposing arguments. As soon as they can, they’ll move on pretending that had reached a undisputed enilghtment and then continue to wind up their “truths” like if the whole world should bend on Lewis’ disposal and everyone is trying to stab him on the back, paranoid stuff of the worst type.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBrWMQ3uhRo
            Graphical analysys: Lewis was found not in the apex’s direction through the corner without really completing the pass on Max, thus being held responsible for the collision. He was about half a car alongside, so not enough to have preference of the inside line. Why does Max need to back off if he’s still ahead? Not that Lewis couldn’t go slightly more close to the apex to avoid the collision either, as the normal procedure for proper racing. That’s the reason why the stewards came to the conclusion of applying the penalty. Here’s the document text with their statement.

            “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.”

            Now if you want to contest that, feel free to point another articles on the sporting regulations that could come to a contradiction on the rules or a range for interpretation. If not, accept the stewards ruling. If you refuse to do so and keep up with this empty reasoning protest all you’ll do is spreading around delusional stuff of sore loser fans, crying for a lost cause.

  53. Just like the good old days that everyone says they want back every time the formula adopts a safety measure, when racing drivers were “real men” and “knew the risks”. It’s always nonsense, as riven when their driver has a big crash. I hope all you Max fans who joined him in denouncing the halo noticed that his wheel bounced off the halo.

  54. I very rarely agree with Horner. But in this case I do pretty much. I think Lewis was at fault in this case. Say Max had been seriously injured?

    Copse was not the place to try that move. It was dangerous. Then he actually did it again to Charles at the same place! But Charles didn’t have the grip and thought he would get out of the way.

    However Lewis did get a penalty although it was not as strong as it could have been. He should have got 3 penalty points like others have for similar offences.

  55. On Dutch TV he say he will give Max a call to see he is alright bla bla bla…then on Channel 4 when asked if he will speak to Max he says “I don’t know, I don’t really have anything to say to him”.

    1. Sam (@undercut677)
      18th July 2021, 18:31

      Disgusting

  56. Unsurprising amount of venom here now, which is understandable. All I’ll say is this: the late 1980s is widely considered to be F1’s greatest era, and it certainly isn’t remembered for good-natured camaraderie and lack of controversy between it’s contenders. We rarely see a championship at this level of intensity, enjoy it while it lasts…

    1. True, in a way this reminds of when senna crashed on prost on purpose at suzuka, 1990 I guess.

  57. Come on, what do Max and his fans expect? Everyone to roll over kitten like when he blocks aggressively over several corners? Sometimes when you invest the aggression, it comes back at you. Was Hamilton to blame? Marginally maybe, but for a first lap incident, it was similar to others that have been let as racing incidents. Hamilton is usually a bit more cautious but that caution has seen him lose out against a much more assertive Max. This time it felt like he was equally assertive and with both of them racing hard, a collision seemed likely.

    But try reversing the situation: Hamilton, clearer faster, decides to go round the outside. Does Max give him room or send him flying off the corner? More than likely the latter – as Max has been aggressive all season in such incidents. So Hamilton went inside instead. Aggressive but the idea he deliberately took him out or was reckless is ridiculous. Max presumed he’d closed off the inside but hadn’t.

    1. @david-br
      I’m not a Verstappen fan at all, but what I do expect is that when drivers are given racing room they do not crash into their competitor. That’s what happened today, Verstappen gave Hamilton sufficient room but Hamilton, because he was turning in from such an acute angle, understeered into Verstappen and took him out.
      Maybe it was about aggression but Hamilton being aggressive in the wrong place could’ve caused a huge accident and injured someone.

      1. The thing is I don’t think Max was ever going to cede and Lewis wasn’t going to relent. Max has expected Lewis to cede in earlier races, correctly judging that he would try to use the Mercedes pace to pass later, and has used that to get ahead more than once. But this time the situation changed, Lewis wasthe one at a disadvantage in the championship and could risk more. But does Max do what Lewis did and wait for later? No. I’m not saying either is wrong, just that Max wanting to contest every corner aggressively isn’t always going to work out for him.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          18th July 2021, 19:31

          Okay, but when did Max failed to be aware of his surroundings like Lewis today, acting like no one was there, and sent his rival into the barriers this season? There’s a difference between hard racing and clumsy moves, otherwise many races will be spoiled while you reward careless and dangerous driving. When you compare it with Russell v. Sainz incident during sprint race start you see how it’s way worse and deserving of a harsh penalty. Ten seconds penalty could be fine but for a long race and pace advantage it was too cheap, and the funny thing is now Ham fans forgot how supposedly the Mercedes car was struggling (this narrative is not convenient for them at the moment) and as such it actually enabled him to claw back for victory with not too much difficulty. Again, Lewis had the luck he didn’t actually deserve which lacked on Max’s side.

          1. Lewis was lucky today sure, like he was at Imola, the red flag allowing him to ‘regroup’. Still an excellent drive to win. I get the sour notes, though, given how everything panned out, Lewis winning, Max in hospital for checks. Was Verstappen aware of his surroundings? I don’t think he expected Hamilton to take the inside line, but he was surely coming into vision as he turned in. It was really ‘just’ a clip so I presume Verstappen thought Hamilton would still be able to avoid him, but difficult to say.

          2. Rodric Ewulf
            18th July 2021, 20:32

            @david-br Max was naive on that particular incident, he tested luck in a outrageous way, but they’re not in the same situation here. Lewis could only not be the most one to blame if he was ahead but he wasn’t, so he held the major responsibility for the positioning. Max should have the preference for the corner, that’s plain clear, then the penalty. The question is the penalty ended up cheap actually.

    2. @david-br

      With regard to the aggressive wheel to wheel approach of Verstappen for example in races like Spain, Imola… Those moves happened in slow corners at very low speeds and Hamilton wasn’t cautious back then. He did his signature move against Verstappen in Portugal nearly pushing him off the track which was fine for me by the way. Hard but fair racing.

      What he did today was a reckless Maldonado move to say the least. Putting your car in the middle of a 300 kph corner while your rival is having half a car alongside is very dangerous. You can’t have those turn 1 battles at corners like Copse, Eau Rouge, Parabolica… Only one driver will have the racing line. You don’t see Fernando Alonso doing that sort of error even though he is a fearsome competitor and a very aggressive driver.

      1. @tifoso1989 Hamilton passed Norris and Leclerc at the same corner, so I’m inclined to view ‘cannot’ a bit more relatively. It’s true this was high speed compared to Spain and Italy, but that goes for them both. I’m not convinced it was reckless at all, perhaps a miscalculation by Hamilton, also some element of Verstappen refusing to cede. I thought the attempted pass was legitimate but I’m going to look at it afresh tomorrow.

        1. @david-br
          Norris gave him no fight for obvious reasons for the second race in a row which is becoming a little bit pathetic given the fact that Norris is very hard to pass and would rather die to give up his position. So that move doesn’t count.

          I’ve watched the analysis by Pedro De La Rosa of his both moves on Verstappen and Leclerc after the race in DAZN Spain and the difference was obvious. Hamilton had 2 different approaches to the same corner with two different drivers. With Verstappen he put his wheel in the middle of the corner and basically forced the incident, a crash or let me pass move and he wasn’t ahead nor he had the racing line. With Leclerc he put his car basically on the inside curb and left Leclerc room so both have made the corner.

          Wolff said after the race that Masi have explained the rules to them and that it was about a high speed corner. Different rules applies to different racing scenarios. I remember this was thoroughly explained when Hamilton and Rosberg collided in Spa. I need to find you this specific scenario and share it.

          From what I remember when two drivers are disputing an apex, the attacking driver (Hamilton) has his front wing alongside the defending driver’s rear wheel (Verstappen). The defending driver has the right to the racing line and a collision is entirely the fault of the attacking driver. Whether this is still relevant or not, the FIA have specific rules for each case like the one move rule on the straight and from the way Hamilton was penalised, I don’t doubt it’s a slam dunk penalty.

          1. @tifoso1989 I don’t think they’re comparable; Rosberg was a lot further back at Spa and really clipped him when he had no chance of passing. Hamilton did have a chance of racing Verstappen through the corner, Max didn’t expect him to be inside and so continued on the driving line. However (and this is a great point made by Peter Windsor who sides with the ‘racing incident / no penalty’ view as a fan of both drivers) Max did move over to close off the inside – so, contrary to Horner, Max, as an actual racer, did anticipate Hamilton could try to pass on the inside of Copse. The crux is that Max thought had done enough to close the corner, but he’d actually left a gap and Hamilton went for it.

            It was hard racing from both drivers. But like I said, I think the attempt by Hamilton was legitimate.

          2. @david-br
            I know both moves are not comparable. I said that after that collision there were a lot of discussions here in the forum and in other forum about racing situations. I remember they were thoroughly explained somewhere with examples and articles from the sporting regulations about the most common situations. I need to find the exact scenario of the Hamilton/Verstappen move to back my claim that is a slam dunk penalty.

            Anyway, it didn’t take too long for the race control to decide. Maybe Masi will explain it later as he always do. In the meantime, I’m still fetching for old articles…

          3. @tifoso1989 The penalty didn’t surprise me given the outcome of the contact – had the effect been less dramatic, I suspect the stewards would have been more inclined towards ‘racing incident.’ I mean, the whole idea is not to suppress hard but fair racing, and those lines can be very difficult to draw.

      2. Rodric Ewulf
        18th July 2021, 19:34

        Lewis acted like Max was not there, intentionally or not, and even claimed that his rival left him no room, when it’s clear in the video it wasn’t the case at all.

        reckless Maldonado move

        Very good description of it

    3. Mark in Florida
      18th July 2021, 20:18

      (@david-br)Well David I disagree respectfully. You can’t say shoulda, woulda, coulda when the other guy (max) was the one punted off. Now if Max comes back the next race and gives Lewis the chrome horn NASCAR style and deliberately smashes him off the track maybe you could call it aggressive driving. In America its just payback between drivers on the circuit. It happens in Indy Car all the time. Its sort of self policing by the drivers it keeps overly aggressive drivers in check. I’m not a Max fan but I like to see clean driving and the amount of desperation Lewis showed was what led, in my opinion to crushing Max in the wall. It sickens me to hear apologists for Lewis make ridiculous excuses for his behavior. He was clearly in the wrong and took a huge risk in what he did. He not only did take out Max but could have wrecked himself as well.

      1. I disagree respectfully too, I think the attempt was legitimate, Max thought the inside was covered after he moved right, which indicates that he had anticipated Lewis might attempt to pass there. So Max himself thought it was possible (and more likely something he would have tried to do were the positions reversed). The error, then, was also partly his in presuming he’d done enough to close off the threat. A ten second penalty kind of places some of the overreaction to the incident in context – had it been reckless (e.g. Schumacher’s squeeze on Barrichello) the stewards would have been far heavier. Thankfully Max is alright. But he’s in a dangerous sport and big shunts happen.

        1. @david-br
          I see where you’re coming from and I agree that it was a legitimate move to attempt but I think there’s points where I disagree:
          1) Max never took up the racing line (or retook the racing line by moving right squeezing Hamilton), which you do suggest that he did.
          On corner entry I think Max wanted Hamilton to go to the outside but he was aware that if he defended too much to the inside then Copse would be very acute and it would be an easy pass for Hamilton to sweep around the outside. That’s why there was just enough room for Hamilton to go down the inside. Verstappen never intended to completely hug the inside or close the door completely, just make it more difficult for Hamilton to go down there. I think the defending before the corner was tough but fair and that’s not where the problem is.
          Verstappen was always wider than the racing line in Copse itself and did leave space on the inside for Hamilton, which would’ve been sufficient if Hamilton was carrying a bit less speed. Hamilton’s understeer from an acute angle and the dirtier part of the track is ultimately what brought them together, not Verstappen moving back right towards Hamilton in the corner itself.

        2. Rodric Ewulf
          19th July 2021, 0:45

          When you rewatch the incident you’ll see who had moved more, as the one who seized the middle of the track while oversteering into the corner without really being ahead at all was Lewis. Max exposed himself to the risk, but it’d be pretty easy for his rival to left room if he wanted to. The thing is Lewis feels entitled for others to back off in front of him, it seems, after so many years having Bottas at his disposal to do that. That’s why he praised Leclerc who almost didn’t even attempt to defend the lead with very worn tyres. By comparing apples with onions, 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.

  58. People who can’t wait to bring BLM into every issue concerning Hamilton, are clearly racist.

    Just my opinion.

    1. Leonard ‘Big Lenny’ Persin (@)
      18th July 2021, 18:32

      Oh well.

    2. Rodric Ewulf
      18th July 2021, 18:47

      He didn’t seem to care if Max was doing well and instead blamed him, so it’s fitting for BLM hypocrisy indeed.

  59. Rodric Ewulf
    18th July 2021, 18:19

    It’s very telling that now Lewis praises his team, after his win obtained in very questionable fashion, saying that he always believed his team and all that cheap talk, when just one or two weeks ago he played down every chance to take the fight with Red Bull through his pessimistic attitude, and I’m not even talking about his preposterous attitude about his team after underperforming in Monaco. Of course Max had been vocal about his car sometimes but would he get so cocky after a performance like that? At least Fernando wouldn’t act as low, because when he had some bad qualis earlier this season he frankly admitted. But Lewis seems to not be able to do that as his little fans and media want to portray him as the unfailable biggest star every time. Recently he has been the one looking like the spoiled child sometimes, not Max.

    1. +1. This is the exact pattern every time. Constantly double tongued. But its the same as the sterling dive in the Euros. Theyre so desperate in the public and British media to maintain the illusion that he is anything beyond a masterful racer that they refuse to acknowledge/dig into any failings no matter how recurring or obvious they are. All countries put their heroes on pedestals, but with Hamilton this undesirable, and very recurring, personality trait is completely missed or wilfully ignored. Like a Sterling dive the ends seemingly always justifies the means.

  60. I’m concerned that Max may have suffered a major concussion.
    If that’s the case, he may not be cleared to drive the next race.
    Seeing as how he acted after the race, HAM is probably praying that’s the case.

  61. Sara J – but interestingly, he has achieved far more than you ever could in your life.

    If I were you, I’d be praying to have some of his luck. I hope you have cleaned up your tv, though!

    1. That made me chuckle. Hilarious!

  62. Dropping the ‘H’ word only belittles any argument he might wish to make.

    Max is fine. As a matter of routine he has to submit to certain madatory checks.
    There is no need to over dramatise the situation with the ‘H’ word.

    1. Yep, Routine MRI scan after a big crash.

  63. I don’t understand all these people who say you don’t overtake into Copse corner. That has been done countless times. As recently as 2019, when Bottas and Hamilton also had a lap-long duel with several position swaps, including one at Copse. I agree Hamilton could have backed down, but Verstappen was defending as sharply and aggressively as Lewis was attacking. Max was leaving very little room and he cut back in very late (which our local pundit said out loud right after this very same thought entered my head). I thought this was a racing incident with both of them out on (and beyond) the edge of appropriate behaviour. Moreover, both drivers have previous form and neither of them is innocent — certainly not now when they are both playing for the big marbles. Quite possibly, they were both sending each other the clear message that they weren’t going to be push-overs and there would be no presents.

    1. You do not do it the Lewis way. That’s the message you missed.

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        18th July 2021, 22:02

        Hamilton overtook Leclerc there just fine in the same race. The difference is that Leclerc knew to yield in a lost position. That’s why Leclerc took a nice P2 home and Verstappen gravel.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          19th July 2021, 1:08

          @f1osaurus 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 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. 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.

          1. F1oSaurus (@)
            19th July 2021, 8:33

            Jeez can you cry even more? Come on man you’re making everything wet.

        2. Rodric Ewulf
          20th July 2021, 0:14

          Jeez can you cry even more? Come on man you’re making everything wet.

          Argumentation ability level: fourth grade or less

  64. It is sad to see how bad the level of humanity these days, especially from those who act like they care about other human beings. I had been a fan of Lewis from the beginning of his F1 career and supported his teams along the way, McLaren and then Merc. But now (from this year) I started supporting young talented drivers like Max, Lando, Sains, Charles etc. because I cannot take anymore crap of Lewis and Merc, had a huge respect for Toto until recently, especially before they started to crack under pressure and blamed Bottas for almost anything while using him for their own advantage and I’m sick of Toto’s corporate games. They ruined Bottas’s career by using him to support Lewis and now they blame him. I had been silent though, but today I was gutted. Didn’t feel like watching the race but just did. Max had a near death experience with a 51G crash, and this guy didn’t even say a word about him in the after race interview because it might make him guilty in public although he knows he is guilty that it would be a disadvantage for his case over this. These are the rare but good situations where you can judge someone, whether that person is just acting or respecting his words. I hope poor Max is okay, wish him a quick recovery. I’m not typing this because it was Max who got hurt, I would’ve typed this for any driver. So please, those who support Lewis, just calm down and get a good view of things before attacking my comment because next time it could happened to you, not a crash like this because you are not racing, but a similar situation in your workplace etc.

    Also I’m not happy how some of the presenters made jokes of Dr. Helmut Marko’s comments about a proper punishment for Lewis. You guys think you are the kings, when it comes to media, that you know and have a say to almost anything. But without being a hero in-front of a microphone, try experiencing a 51G crash and see. I think it was a fair statement from Dr. Helmut Marko, racing wheel to wheel is one thing, like they did in the sprint race, like they did before the crash, they were racing wheel to wheel, but I don’t think Lewi’s last move was something like that. He was desperate and childish that even after Max gave him room to settle, he didn’t back out and put Max’s life in danger. He didn’t care about his life, the so called person who is promoting vegetarianism (may be one of his businesses to earn money, faking again) almost killed a talented driver today, why? because he could be a hero in front of his fans running with the flag at ANY COST. And I’m gutted, they cheered him, so if you had to kill one to win, do it and we will accept that, that’s okay! Respect for Martin Brundle and David Croft for playing it fair most of the time but I don’t think they evaluated the situation properly enough today. Ted, don’t insult comments of Dr. Helmut Marko, although he is from Team Redbull, I’m sure his comments were more aligned with the risks of moves like this to anyone in future.

    I do racing, not F1, I have experienced small crashes, I know how hard it is. But Max’s crash is like 1000% of my crashes. So as intelligent human beings, or as human beings because we are naturally intelligent, we should know where to draw the line between wheel to wheel racing and risking someone’s life. Because not a day goes by, that I think of Ayrton Senna, a great driver, but he is not here anymore. I don’t want that to happen to anyone, even to Lewis, although I hate him, because I’m a human being and not an actor. But what was the outcome? As someone here said, the guy who risked Max’s life won the race scoring full points while Max diagnosed in a hospital. Oh yes, talk about fair penalties.

    I might stop watching F1 if Mercedes continue to influence FIA for their advantage. I know powerful teams had been doing this in the past, but I thought for once now things are more or less equals so there is more chance for the talented teams and the drivers. This is just starting to become like WWE, thank you Lewis and Toto, your hard working in turning F1 to WWE.

    Although I support Max, I wrote this comment as a neutral person, as a human being. So fans of Lewis, save your energy, please try to see the full picture.

  65. A reply to a now deleted lame death threat to Lewis at Zandvoort.

    1. Probably by a Lewis fan trying to discredit max fans.

      1. False flag!

      2. I will let them come forward and admit what they did rather than name them, but if it was a false flag, they’ve been undercover for a very long time.

  66. RandomMallard (@)
    18th July 2021, 19:02

    Oh can people grow up??? I’m a Max fan (in the context of the championship fight, but normally McLaren) but I’m ashamed of some people’s reaction to this. These things happen, you have to take them and move on. Hamilton was penalised with what I see as a fair penalty, and he recovers well to take the win.

  67. Of one thing I’m sure: swap the players and all those baying for Lewis’ blood would be besides themselves with delight. And vice versa…

    1. That’s true. I did actually do that mental swap in my head, which made me switch from ‘Hamilton did nothing wrong’ to ‘overambitious, maybe.’ But it was clear Hamilton was faster and actually driving extremely well, keeping in touch with Max even though the latter was (somewhat raggedly) closing him off. I mean, swapping them round, I think I’d have said that Verstappen was all over Hamilton and the latter was maybe incautious to not expect him on the inside at Copse.

    2. Rodric Ewulf
      18th July 2021, 19:45

      Personally I would never be less critical of a driver who caused a collision, but of course many fans won’t act like that because of herd behaviour. Every fanbase is affected by that and Max’s or Lewis’ would be no different. Today Lewis was mostly to blame, but tomorrow it can be Max because he can possibly stop being a more consistent driver anytime like Lewis recently, like Sebastain did in recent past and even Kimi became more error prone this season. Never take the current situation as automatically an everlasting situation. Analysing lots of sports data just taught me that.

    3. No I would blame Verstappen, but wouldn’t think he would hit someone on purpose. However, Senna would, Schumacher would, Hamilton would.

      1. Your bias shines so brightly even in this response.

    4. I’m pretty sure I’d be disappointed with Max if he celebrated the win like Lewis did. I’m not disappointed with Lewis for the collision. It was his fault, his mistake, but these happen in racing. What feels wrong is that the collision that Lewis caused cost him meaningless 10 seconds while it caused Max a DNF and a trip to the hospital.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        19th July 2021, 0:06

        No doubt about that. No one can rightfully claim Lewis had a good sense of sportsmanship on this incident. Not only trying to blame Max but making a ridiculous appeal to what Leclerc did in front of him at the same corner, who was on worn tyres being a sitting duck to lose the lead. Not the same situation at all.

  68. Verstappen got what he deserved. Slap! Bang! Boom! He was bumping lewis on the straights. He is continually being overly aggressive. The tables have now turned. Well done to Lewis!

    1. Do you know anything about the leading car having the right to keep the racing line?

      1. Davethechicken
        18th July 2021, 20:25

        That “right” ceased to exist when they decreed a cars width must always be left when any part of the other car is alongside any part of first car.

        1. so? There was room for three mercedes beside Max…. but you have to use that space… that part lewis missed.

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            19th July 2021, 2:24

            @erikje I do not understand why Lewis has to squeeze into the right side on the line or the grass, or even leave the track, or tuck behind so that Max has enough space to take the line he wants.

            It’s not like Lewis hit Max. Max hit Lewis by misjudging Lewis’ position.

            By the way, Max defended twice… and they were completely side-by-side heading into the corner…

            The fact that Lewis got a penalty was ridiculous. As I said before, good stewards would have penalized Verstappen.

    2. Rodric Ewulf
      18th July 2021, 19:47

      If it was said by a Max fan it would be called at least toxic, at most racist.

      1. Davethechicken
        18th July 2021, 20:27

        You are correct. Max did not deserve that. But in F1 high speed crashes have always been a risk.

  69. The official F1 account instagram post on the race already has more than 31k comments. Sky TV no doubt redoing highlight reels and all F1 marketing content right now.

    1. wow Lewis is not liked by the Tifosi and Dutch orange army hence flooding social media with salty comment(!)

      Seriously it was a great race for the record books and the vocal whiners are most likely gamblers who lost a ton of money and the become super toxic when they lose anyway

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        19th July 2021, 2:38

        @ccpbioweapon Just forgot that less than one week ago Hammy fans were crying all over social media with the supposed inability of the Mercedes car to win races and the certain end of the championship (despite Mercedes having years of domination on their own).
        Oh, well… a fan’s memory lasts no longer than a few days.

  70. I personally can’t wait for Hungary. Two Alpha’s showing today neither will cede to the other.

    A la Prost and Senna. Long may it continue.

  71. First, this is a culmination of several aggressive moves by Max on Lewis, usually when the lights go out. Sooner or later Lewis was going to get his elbows out too and attack/defend with the same aggressiveness. He was certainly not going to let it happen again infront of his home fans, on home soil!

    Second, Max seems not to know what it means to survive today and fight another day. He was 33 points ahead in the championship, seemingly able to extract everything from a car that’s been on fire in recent races. Max could have yielded the lead on at least one occasion before the contact at Copse. At best he catches and passes Lewis during the race. At worst he finishes second, or third. Or fourth. But he’s still leading the championship by a healthy margin. Lewis has done this on several occasions, most recently in Barcelona against the very same Max. The same unyielding disposition caused Max to lose a sure win in Brazil 2019. This is something that Max will learn as he gets older. Or not.

    Lastly, I believe the incident was 60:40 Lewis’s fault, and the penalty was deserved. But it was not deliberate. His celebrations and words after the race seem to indicate that he’s decided to use whatever weapons that he believes his rival is using, and he will not apologize for that. A lot of fans here are super upset that he’s not shown any remorse because they are accustomed to seeing him show apologizing in public. The rest of the season will be fun!

  72. Crash into your rival, celebrate how good you are while he is in hospital.

    very sad and unsportsmanslike behavior….

  73. “Hamilton takes out Verstappen to win British Grand Prix” would have been the appropriate title.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      18th July 2021, 22:05

      @j-l “Verstappen takes himself out by over aggressive defending while Leclerc in the same lost situation manages to take P2 instead of gravel.”

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        19th July 2021, 2:09

        @f1osaurus Not a lost situation for Max on the incident, even less after (Wasn’t the Red Bull all powerful? Did you drop that narrative?), not the same condition of tyres, not an inevitable tanglement as it wasn’t Max who pushed himself into the middle of the track going to the corner like no one was there, refusing to go closer to the apex despite not being ahead, and feeling entitled of an overtake. To summarize, not a comparable situation at all but you’re just repeating what your spoiled GOAT said. Your idol who you adore so much just seems to not be able to race wheel-to-wheel properly anymore, as in the last few clashes with Max either he had been overtaken easily without any fight because he’s on the pessimistic mode or he takes out his main rival while being in the incautious mode. Max himself had his reckless moments in the past but Lewis is getting dangerously close to be worse despite coming towards the final segment of his career, which is just weird. Very likely in a Seb-style spiral of inconsistency.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          19th July 2021, 8:33

          Yes lost situation. Hamilton was fully alongside on the inside of the tuern. He has the right to the racing line. Verstappen needs to make space.

          1. Rodric Ewulf
            20th July 2021, 0:07

            @f1osaurus Why? Because he’s a sir? Unfortunately for you and him the stewards disagree about his “natural” entitlement of racing line. Fully alongside is not necessarily enough (even that wasn’t true, Hamilton was about half a car sideways Verstappen) and if you hadn’t completed the move, that is, actually going ahead then you shouldn’t think that you own the inside line. So that’s just one more lost cause for Sir Still-I-Whine and his fans.

  74. Amazing race for Lewis, one for the ages!!

    also great 1 point haul Yuki Tsunoda. For all the rabid hate he unjustly gets for being reckless and rude (its rude when he swears but when leclerc does it is passion…ok) he had an incident free race and finished in front of his team mate and Perez in the Red bull who is the real overhyped driver.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      19th July 2021, 2:15

      For all the rabid hate he unjustly gets for being reckless and rude (its rude when he swears but when leclerc does it is passion…ok

      Someone who criticises him for swearing is really going to fall into contradiction sooner or later, but not if one is critical of him for not recognising a underwhelming performance and instead blaming the team (at Monaco) or careless/dangerous driving, with a certain amount of occurrences pilling up this season.

  75. … different rules for different people, the world according to F1, it’s okay to penalize George Russell. But, not Lewis Hamilton –

  76. Does anyone think If the roles were reversed, Max would back out in that situation? We know he wouldn’t, go back and look at the first lap at Barcelona. Lewis was on the outside, ahead, and had the line, but Max didn’t back out. Lewis did back out to avoid the accident that he knew was going to happen, and let Max barrel through. Max not only didn’t back out today, but after he saw Lewis was there, he initially turned left to give room, but then turned hard right pinching Lewis on the inside expecting Lewis to yield like he has in the past. Today he didn’t yield, and Max should take notice of that. In the end both of them could have avoided that accident. Max had more to lose in this situation, and he probably should have considered that before pinching Lewis.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      19th July 2021, 2:24

      When two drivers try to compete for the same spot into a corner the one who needs to back out is the driver who wasn’t ahead. Max was somewhat ingenuous by thinking Lewis would follow the rules and back out, whilst his rival pushed himself into the middle of the track going to the corner, feeling entitled of an overtake which hadn’t be completed yet. So yeah, Max was naive and Lewis was the main responsible for the crash.

      1. So by that argument, Max should have yielded in Barcelona. He didn’t. That’s my point. Lewis did exactly what Max would have done in the same situation. I think what you saw in this race is Lewis racing Max the way Max races Lewis (and everyone else to be honest). I think both today and Barcelona were “racing incident’s”. Today more blame should be placed on Lewis. In Barcelona, if Lewis hadn’t backed out, they would have crashed, and more blame would be on Max. The difference was that Lewis decided in Barcelona that he had more to lose in that situation, yielded, and continued to race. Max took a you yield or we crash approach today as he always does, and Lewis did the same. Max came out on the worse end of it this time.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          19th July 2021, 21:34

          Still, even if a collision would happen in Barcelona the consequences of it likely couldn’t be as serious as a 51G impact. There’s a reason why Grosjean crash in 2012, for instance, was more severe than other clashes. When at high speeds braking is misjudged or one goes too deep into the corner for which the driver didn’t have the preference (doing what is not standard, not expected) alongside one or more rivals not fully aware of each other the risks are a couple of times higher. Russell was widely criticised by many Lewis fans (on behalf of their puppet Bottas) for a clumsy move, and like him failing to recognise his role in the incident, so why the difficulty to do the same now if not for unfathomed bias? Actually this incident at Copse was even worse, not just a clumsy move but a completely careless track positioning, showing disregard for proper racing conduct at the most basic level.

  77. In past years Lewis knew he had the best car and would back out figuring he would catch the car later in the race and that finishing races is the way to win the championship. Max was 100% by the book today but the lesson is that being 100% right doesn’t win races and championships some times.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      19th July 2021, 2:14

      @jimfromus

      Max was 100% by the book today

      Sure thing!

  78. Racing incident right ? Attacker halfway alongside, so both attacker and defender have a right to the corner….collision occurs, blame is shared. Defender’s day is done in this case, so no use penalizing him, attacker gets a 10 second penalty reflecting his share of the blame.

  79. ky Sports News
    @SkySportsNews
    ·
    9m
    Lewis Hamilton has been targeted with online racist abuse hours after winning the British Grand Prix for the eighth time.

    I’ll just leave this here for people to think about…

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      19th July 2021, 2:48

      Is racist abuse his excuse or what’s the next? Most of people are just criticising what certainly was clumsy racing and questionable sportsmaship as he refuses to accept his role on the incident and even didn’t care about Max’s situation afterwads. Insults against him let alone racist slurs are never justified, and as well he could show more compassion towards rivals and act less like he’s entitled of other drivers letting him past without difficulty. He praised Leclerc just because the Ferrari driver almost didn’t even attempt to defend the lead with very worn tyres, 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.

  80. It takes two (2) to tangle and I’m not a fan of either of them. Both race hard and Lewis has to get ahead of Max otherwise the same outcome as the sprint race. Lewis misses the apex and Max takes a tighter line, Lewis is more at fault but I would classify it as a racing incident, those 2 race hard and those things are bound to happen sooner rather than later

    1. yeah i would rather have this than seeing bottas in a battle

  81. I have been following F1 for 42 years and after witnessing that incident I have no doubt Hamilton’s move was one of a driver willing to put a competitors safety at risk in order to enhance his chances of winning.
    It was a despicable act from driver who is having difficulty dealing with being outclassed by another as we have witnessed this season in Max Verstappen.
    It won’t surprise me to see him do it again if it only results in a 10 sec penalty with the only serious challenger out of the way given he still has 10 licence points to play with this season.
    Thats who Lewis Hamilton is.

  82. Btw, 315 comments, this is a really hot topic, never seen so many on the site!

    1. might well be the biggest controversy in the season, which i predicted in the pre season

  83. Remember Grosjean getting a race ban for hitting a car at the start in Spa? Here is how the stewards reasoned:

    “The stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations which had the potential to cause injury to others”

    “It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race.”

    No difference now. Everyone knows that a crazy full speed move on the inside of Copse had the potential to cause injury to others and is exactly what happened with a 50G accident. It also eliminated championship contenders from the race. All Grosjean did was misjudged braking T1 L1. This was much worse as the move was intentional and the outcome predictable.

    1. Eliminated leading championship contenders…So THAT was why. Always thought that Grosjean was banned because he was a repeat offender of start crashes…

    2. Hardly the same, Grosjean took out 4 cars very nearly hitting Alonso head, this was he’s 7th first lap incident in 12 races, yesterday 2 races went for the same corner and neither yielded.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        19th July 2021, 23:56

        @f1-plossl Well, why couldn’t Grosjean make the same excuse of Lewis saying that he was entitled of a large racing line, others came into him and that’s it? The most relevant differences are just the number of cars involved and the incident cause being understeering while braking versus going too deep, inadvertently or not, into a corner for which one wasn’t ahead to rightfully and safely do so. The two accidents were dangerous to a level that is just unacceptable. If like most of other drivers you want to label that as a “racing incident” then that’s fine, but nevertheless you cannot pretend it was an innocuous collision, and actually it had been an easy one to avoid if only the driver who caused it had made use of proper racing conduct and going closer to the apex given that he hadn’t the preference for the turn anyway as dictated by basic driving standards. The reason for the penalty could not be clearer, the sad thing is that ultimately it was inconsequential to discourage further careless moves as the Mercedes car offers more than enough pace to nullify the penalty effect on the final results.

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