Max Verstappen recalls the Austria moment after his latest run-in in F1 Hungarian GP, as Lewis Hamilton spills on hostility.
Amid all the turmoil and losing out to McLaren, Red Bull’s Verstappen and Mercedes’ Hamilton found each other again in the heat of F1 Hungarian GP. The Dutchman and the Brit came together initially on Lap 1, but the former managed to fend him off.
The latter stayed on with him in the first part but a different strategy from Red Bull meant, Verstappen was behind Hamilton in the next two stints. There was the tyre advantage for the Dutchman, but he still had to pass the Brit to make the move stick.
He tried a couple of times to no avail in the middle stint but the fight was cut short due to pit stop. The final stint saw Verstappen having to pass Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as well before arriving to Hamilton in the battle for third place in the end.
Verstappen had enough to be on the podium but a move at Turn 1 proved costly. They both passed a backmarker and in the corner, Hamilton started to turn right when the Dutchman arrived at full speed and locked-up. Their wheels touched and the Red Bull went airbourne.
He managed to continue on but lost to Leclerc, while Hamilton retained third. The stewards deemed it as a racing incident, even though Verstappen argued that the Brit moved under braking which resulted in a collision between the two, recalling the Austria moment.
The stewards did note that Hamilton could have handled it better which is why it was a racing incident with no one to be blamed. “I got a lot of shit thrown at me in Austria with
people saying moving under braking, blah blah blah,” said Verstappen. “I am positioning
my car on the initial movement and then I keep it straight.
“Today, under braking Lewis just kept turning to the right and that is why I also locked up because I was going for the move but I saw the car on the outside kept coming at me. Otherwise, we would’ve already crashed before. I had to stop the car so that is why I locked up,” summed up Verstappen, as Christian Horner termed it as ‘a racing incident’.
Hamilton kept the racing incident line, as videos showcased the Brit and the Dutchman shaking hands or patting in good gesture in the media pen to not let the latest run-in grow. But the Mercedes did note about unsaid hostility from the Red Bull driver.
Ever since the 2021 F1 season, whenever the two are near each other, there is anticipation of something to go wrong and Hungarian GP was another example of it. “I mean, from what I can remember, obviously we passed a backmarker,” said Hamilton. “I got to the braking zone, and then Max appeared, to overtake the car behind me, so I moved over to defend.
“I left enough room in the inside, but Max locked up, and he was going a different trajectory to me. I was going towards, around the corner, and he came shooting across. It felt like a racing incident. And it’s easy to make mistakes like that. And so I don’t feel there should be any hostility. But of course, from his side, there always will be.
“It’s not nerve-wracking. I think when you see the pace at which they close the gap in certain corners, you just laugh to yourself, because it’s not something I can do. Particularly in the last sector, they were very, very strong, same as the McLarens. So, I mean, I saw him coming from a long way back, and he was able to brake a lot later than me.
“But he sent it up the inside. I stayed still, and he clipped the wheel and went over. So I think a racing incident, but, you know, yeah,” summed up Hamilton, who was surprised to be in the fight with Red Bull considering the pace advantage they had.
“I think out of pure pace, we weren’t,” noted Hamilton. “Unfortunately, we’re still not, in hot conditions particularly… So you saw in Austria and here, we’re not able to keep up with these guys. But in stint one, I was really surprised to see that I was able to hold on to Max. And I wasn’t even having to push too hard to stay within a second, or around a second behind him.
“So I thought at that point that maybe I was in for a chance of at least fighting for that place. But then in the second stint, it was a bit of a disaster, it didn’t feel good. And the true pace of the car started to show, I think, on those tyres. But we obviously got the undercut and track position is clearly key on this track.
“And I think that really ultimately made the difference,” summed up Hamilton, as team boss Toto Wolff echoed the sentiments of his driver in terms of the incident and also Red Bull being quicker than Mercedes on the given day.
“At that stage, we were struggling to hold on,” said Hamilton to media. “He just launched himself… There was context that he wasn’t happy – he launched himself, locked the wheels and he went straight. I am not sure we were quicker than Max today. We beat him on track but on pure race time, probably not.
“What we have to acknowledge now is that McLaren are clearly leading the field under any condition. That is the new benchmark. It is great that there is another team that has made the jump and is able to score first and second. It is good for all of us. But in these conditions, we were not on a level to reach them. I am happy for them. And I have seen the movie they have found themselves in.”
Here’s the incident: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-hungarian-grand-prix-verstappen-and-hamilton-collide-after-battle-for-p3-boils-over.1805203409307839879
Here verdict from stewards: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2024%20Hungarian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Decision%20-%20Car%201%20-%20Incident%20with%20Car%2044.pdf
Here’s how F1 Hungarian GP panned out
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