Former Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill has accused Max Verstappen of intentionally taking Lewis Hamilton out, after realising he could potentially lose his points advantage as he looked set to finish behind his title rival.
Hamilton emerged from the pits ahead of Verstappen, but the Red Bull driver drew alongside into Turn 1 before taking a chance on the outside. Verstappen committed to the move despite the gap quickly closing and had to run over the orange ‘sausage’ kerbs, which launched his car into Hamilton’s and he came to a stop on top of the Mercedes.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff called the incident a “tactical foul” and Hill concurred, suggesting it could have been done purposefully to protect his slim points lead.
“I have to say, looking at the replay of Max on Lewis at Turn 1, there was no way he was going to make that work,” the 1996 champion told Sky F1.
“He had to take evasive action, as Lewis did in the second chicane to avoid an accident, so the only conclusion is he might have been thinking ‘I have to take him out’.
“Now I don’t want to think that of any driver, but I think it was either an error of judgement or a calculated move to collide with Lewis.
“Which is strong, strong stuff, and I don’t like the idea that I’m accusing anyone of doing that, but he’s got a points advantage and this was a race which Mercedes was supposed to win.”
Verstappen himself admitted he “didn’t want to take the easy route” in backing out of the move. He leaves Monza in an improved championship position after scoring two points in Saturday’s Sprint event, whereas Hamilton leaves points-less.
Red Bull’s Christian Horner described the crash as a “racing incident” with both parties to blame equally.
“I think you can probably argue it from both sides,” he said. “I think if you take a middle ground on it you would say it’s a racing incident, but I genuinely think you could argue Max should have bailed a bit more to the left, you can argue Lewis should have given him more space.”
Another load of shit from Nasty Spice
I think that shows what kind of driver Hill is/was.
Hill was taken out by another cheater name Schumacher in Adelaide Australia, so he knows what he’s talking about.
Is that “spice” or “spite”‘? The manner of his departure from the scene says it all!!
You are so stupid, what did you want hin to do? He was just taken out of the race, he didn’t know what his car had done. But he felt Hamilton trying to back out and trying to move his car. Max showed a lot of self control not confronting him.
This article is about Hill you should try to stick to topic.
What does a TV pundit know about being taken out of a championship race?
Oh I think he knows more than you know
There’s a reason why Hill was dropped by Williams right after winning a championship for them. It’s called being a shit driver in a car that’s so good it can’t lose. Funnily, the next year was the same situation with that clown Villeneuve.
Hill’s a jackass. He needs to show a bit of intelligence and class like his father.
Verstappen is good, but not good enough to hit the sausage curb in just the right spot to launch him into Hamilton’s car so the counter rotating back tires could launch his car on top of Hamilton’s.
Yes, it would damn near impossible to pull that one off. And even if he did, who cares? Look at what Mercedes have pulled this year with Bottas, which each time actually looked very planned to me.
Seemed like a pretty straightforward racing incident to me. If anything, Hamilton should have given Verstappen more room (or any at all) as he was clearly there and obviously wasn’t going to back out. They both got what they deserved, Verstappen for not backing out, and Hamilton for pushing him outside of the racing line.
Clearly i seen verstappen not on side of car.he should have cut the corner let hamilton by then resumed the race.but the. Brat that he is about losing points to me he hit him intentionally.personally i would have punched max straight in his face after the race.but im just a big fan of f1 since the 60s.race on lewis.
Rodrick, Clearly you have wasted 50 years watching F1 because you haven’t learnt damn a thing about it. It was a pretty straightforward racing incident with two very skilled drivers both competing for the same piece of track. Either one of them could have backed out and prevented the collision, but neither of them would. That’s what makes world champions. Hamilton seems to be obsessed with passing Max at the first opportunity without waiting to see how tire strategy or safety cars play out. Max is usually content to wait for the right moment because he is supremely confident that he can pass Hamilton. All in all Max was still the winner because he denied Hamilton from scoring points at a track where Mercedes were enjoying a clear advantage. The decision by the stewards to blame Max for the incident and give him a three place grid penalty is an abomination.
Abe Lincoln had advice for Damon, he should check it out.