Following their collision at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has talked about his “hair-raising” altercation with Max Verstappen. The British driver managed to finish third, trailing only Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris of McLaren, but only after his Mercedes had clipped Verstappen during the Dutchman’s attempt to pass.
As expected, the collision sent the Red Bull car hurtling across the track and onto the gravel, but Hamilton managed to continue and secure a podium finish.
Charles Leclerc took advantage of the incident to jump up a spot, while Verstappen was ranked fifth.
Naturally, the thrilling finish to our race was a little nerve-wracking, but that’s motor racing,” Hamilton remarked afterward. It’s not an anxious experience. You just laugh to yourself because it’s not something I can do when you see how quickly they closed the gap in some areas.”Verstappen now has to wait to see if the incident is looked into by the race stewards, which could potentially cost him his final spot. But Hamilton seemed to suggest that the contact was just a byproduct of racing competition.
“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,” he said. “He clipped the wheel and moved over while I remained motionless. I believe a racing mishap.”
The 39-year-old was initially accused by Verstappen of moving while braking over team radio. He was angry and asked, “So you can just drive people off the track then?” when he noticed that the team engineers were uninterested in the claim.
This reminded people of the two of them and their notorious 2021 title match. They collided several times that season, most famously at Monza, where Hamilton was lucky to avoid serious injury.
Hamilton, who had ended his Formula One drought with a victory at Silverstone last week, was continuing his recent upswing in his last year with the Silver Arrows, despite the outcome. Moreover, he seemed pleased for the group that gave him his professional debut.
“A huge congratulations to McLaren on the one-two,” he said. I’m overjoyed to have the entire team back up front because that is my old, original family.
And the crew has done a fantastic job for us today to keep pushing this car. Even though we couldn’t match the Red Bulls’ or McLarens’ speed in the end, we were only able to hang on early in the race—and it was incredibly difficult to do so while maintaining those tires.”