Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton shows no hostility towards Max Verstappen after the collision between the two competitors inside the final on lap 63.
Talking about the collision with the Dutchman, the Briton outlines that it felt like a racing incident to him and says that it’s easy to make mistakes on those types of corners.
As he tried to dive down the inside, Verstappen locked up, and as Hamilton tried to turn in for the corner, they made contact. The Red Bull got airborne and lost a spot to Leclerc, Hamilton continued on to P3.
The 200-time podium finisher discussed it afterwards, believing there is always hostility from Verstappen.
“I think from what I can remember, I obviously we passed a backarker. I got to the braking zone and then, Max appeared to overtake the car behind me. So I moved over to 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 around the corner and he came shooting across so it felt like a racing incident and and it’s easy to do 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.”
Asked about their car’s pace, the 7-time World Drivers’ Champion says the car does not work so well in the heat, and it left them trailing McLaren on the day.
On the mediums, Hamilton followed Verstappen very closely but lacked ultimate pace on hards.
“No, I think out of pure pace we weren’t unfortunately, in hot conditions particularly. So you saw in Austria and here we’re not able to keep up with these guys, but in the 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 around a second behind him.”
The second stint did not do him any favours however, Hamilton stated that the car did not feel good after pitting for hard tyres and ‘the true pace of the car started to show’.
However, he stated that getting the undercut and getting a track position advantage helped tremendously in getting the podium.
“So I thought at that point that maybe I was in for a chance of at least fighting for that place and but then in the second stint, it was a bit of a disaster that 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 on this track and I think that really ultimately made the difference.”
