Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2021

Red flag for Verstappen crash ‘saved Hamilton from retirement’

2021 British Grand Prix

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British Grand Prix race winner Lewis Hamilton would have had to retire had the race not been red-flagged following his collision with Max Verstappen, according to his team.

Hamilton and Verstappen made contact at Copse corner on the first lap of yesterday’s race. While Verstappen suffered an enormous crash, Hamilton was able to continue.

However Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin revealed Hamilton had sustained damage to his car which they could not have repaired in time had the race not been suspended.

“We’d failed the rim where we’d had the contact at the front-left,” said Shovlin. “So that would have been a DNF [did not finish] had it not been red-flagged.”

The team were able to repair the damage during the stoppage. Shovlin said there was “actually remarkably little” else that needed to be fixed.

“There was a tyre temperature sensor that had got knocked loose so it was waggling around,” he said. “But amazingly, it’s the least important part on the front wing and it was the only one that broke.”

FIA Formula 1 race director Michael Masi said the race was red-flagged primarily to give trackside workers time to repair the barrier Verstappen hit. However there was also doubt over what damage the impact might have done to Verstappen’s power unit.

Although the energy recovery system light on his car was showing a green ‘all-clear’ signal, the loss of data from the car gave race control cause for concern.

“With Max’s car having lost telemetry due to the size of [the crash], neither he nor the team could confirm the ERS status,” Masi explained. “So even though the light was green, we ran a super-cautious approach and sent two team members out, which is within the protocols that we have to check the car to make sure that it was safe before the car got recovered.

“And then following that was the obvious barrier repair that had to happen to the barriers. For everyone’s benefit, as we’ve seen before with barrier repairs, [we’ve] got the ability to suspend the race and it’s the perfect tool to use in that circumstance.”

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165 comments on “Red flag for Verstappen crash ‘saved Hamilton from retirement’”

  1. You can’t make this luck up.

    1. True that!

      The Imola red flag. Verstappen’s tyre crash in Baku. The Silverstone red flag. 3 huge doses of good luck and he also surrendered one of them (Verstappen’s tyre crash) with an unforced error.

      And he is still 8 points below Max in the standings.

      Its clear who is the better driver this year.

      1. And it’s not the first seasin he has kind of luck like that !

      2. The trouble with attributing luck to a driver is it is very easy to do to fit ones narrative.

        There’s no doubt Hamilton has been very lucky, but so have other drivers if you look for it. To highlight my point – it’s possible to say that Verstappen has too over the years…

        Verstappen is widely regarded as one of the masters in the rain. But if you look at many of his wet races, there was a huge element of luck involved.

        Brazil 2016 – widely claimed to be one of the best ever wet weather drives. Yet he had a huge half spin entering the start finish straight that could so easily have ended his race. Very lucky he didn’t hit anything. If he had, nobody would remember it as an all time great drive.

        Germany 2019 – in a race where many drivers had problems in the wet and hit something, Verstappen had a huge 360 spin on a part of the track where there was nothing to hit. Got away with it, went on to win. Again, considered to be a flawless drive. Could so easily have not been.

        Turkey 2020 – granted his result from this race wasn’t great, but again got too greedy chasing down Perez and had a huge spin. Again very lucky he didn’t hit anything, as that would’ve been a very nasty crash.

        Imola 2021 – managed to half spin during a restart, and failed to lose any places due to Leclerc being indecisive.

        That’s just a selection that comes to mind.

        Hamilton has been lucky, yes. But you could pick pretty much any driver and find times when they’ve been lucky or unlucky… If you’re prepared to look hard enough. Typically people allocate luck as the inverse of whatever their preferred driver experienced, if their preferred driver is hard done by in a particular race.

        To be repeat an earlier example, Germany 2019 – Verstappen was LUCKY not hit anything when he aquaplaned and then went on to win, so conversely Hamilton was UNLUCKY when he hit something, and lost the potential win.

        1. You can add Hungry to that list. Max makes an rookie move on the way to the grid and is super lucky he didn’t clip a wheel or he wouldn’t have been starting.

        2. All valid examples. But to look at luck, you only need to look at it 1 season at a time and look for more obvious instances because in the end, the championship of a particular season needs to go to the rightful owner.

          What Lewis getting in 2021 can be considered as an equalizer for the 2012 and 2016 bad luck he had. 2 seasons where he probably drove the better season than the eventual world champion. (Well in 2012, Alonso drove better than both Hamilton and Vettel).

          1. On the Marbles
            19th July 2021, 10:33

            Or indeed his gearbox issue in Brazil 2007, essentially you could selectively say he lost three world championships due to bad luck….. if you wanted to.

            ‘Luck’ is just circumstance. but with 99 wins and 7 world championships maybe, just maybe it isn’t just down to luck……

        3. Wasn’t there also Spa where they replaced all the PU and MGU etc and he started at the back and had 3 safety cars to end up second? :)

        4. maybe not hitting anything was due to skill and not luck? while red flags saving your race is?

      3. It goes way back, it has not started this season. I think top teams are prone to being lucky sometimes suspiciously lucky, definitely just lucky yesterday.

    2. Luckiest racer of F1 history by far. Always works out his way. Unbelievable.

      1. Philip Taylor
        19th July 2021, 8:09

        Absolutely, I mean he was so lucky when his engine exploded in Malaysia in 2016, when he was put to the back of qualifying in Spain in 2012, when his gearbox failed in Singapore in 2012, when his engine failed in Australia in 2014, his luck is endless! Honestly, your ridiculously rabid hatred of the man is clouding your judgement.

      2. Well perhaps.

        But then in 2007 he lost a title by 1 point after bad luck (wheel failure at the European GP and power failure in Brazil)

        2016 lost the title due to engine failure in Malaysia.

        1. Luck related to red flags involves human factor and human decisions though. Mechanical failure is his team’s fault (or his own, depending on the situation, but it’s fair to say it’s mostly down to luck). Red flag is a purposely made decision. It can be just luck for him, but he does always profit (and hugely) from the red flags, and I don’t remember he ever lost anything. Not just that, they saved his races completely a couple times already (from zero points to the max). I don’t think there’s a conspiracy, but I am under the impression that keeping Hamilton in race is on stewards’ minds and it maybe gives them that little boost when they feel itchy about raising the flag. Sometimes there’s too much of a coincidence, and these coincidences make a difference between championships won or lost. That’s F1 for ya…

        2. @davidjwest indeed it ebbs and flows, ferrari were also unlucky in 07 and 08, like massa’s singapore fuel hose. 2016 should have been his on the other hand 2014 could have landed Nico’s way even with the australia pu failure. Overall top drivers tend to get lucky.

    3. Verstappen’s talent skill vs Hamilton’s dumb luck

      The story of 2021 so far

      Hamilton so far has been driving at Vettel 2018 levels. The only difference is that everything has gone his way luck-wise.

      1. Yes, indeed, it’s annoying, he already had a better car than almost every other driver in history.

      2. whats worse he couldnt capitalise on it like in baku

    4. But there comes a times his luck runs out it always does.

    5. I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking this.
      After reviewing the Hamilton-Verstappen incident a little more today, I think I can better articulate what I’m feeling in regards to it.
      What happened itself I feel was close to a racing incident, albeit one where I put more blame on Hamilton than Verstappen. There are already more articulate comments analyzing this from every angle, so I’ll leave it there.
      What I’m really interested in discussing is why fans reacted the way they did. This is the angriest I’ve seen the online f1 community in a while. I can say, as someone who supports Verstappen and Leclerc and has little love (albeit a certain begrudging respect) for Hamilton, that I too was obviously quite upset by the results of the race. I think this is where a lot of the anger at Hamilton comes from though – not from the actual incident itself, but from the race surrounding it.
      If Leclerc had won this race, I’m sure at least half of the comments disparaging Hamilton would disappear. The reason so many were upset was less so because of Hamilton’s fault in the incident, and more because of his outrageous luck during and after it. Even if we accept the fact that what happened was a racing incident, and both drivers were equally to blame, it doesn’t seem right that one ends up in the hospital while the other gets essentially gifted a victory. If Hamilton took himself out alongside Verstappen, I guarantee the blame would be far more evenly distributed, and fans would not be nearly so angry.
      Back to the main point: Hamilton’s luck. The guy truly is blessed by a higher power. I could fill out this comment with examples of all the luck Hamilton’s had over his Mercedes career, but I don’t think we need many reminders. Anyways, I’ll just quote a good comment by @hahostolze a few articles back that many seemed to agree with:
      “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.”
      I might even consider adding “Bottas in his way, team orders”. I’m honestly confounded as to how a person can even be this lucky. People wanted a harsher penalty for Lewis, not only because 10 seconds means nothing for a Mercedes racing a Ferrari, but because it just didn’t seem right that all the stars were aligning for Hamilton, considering he was equally or more at fault for a huge lap 1 crash. Even if you find it hard to say what exactly Lewis did wrong, it’s hard to argue that you’d like to see what happened on lap 1 become a regular occurrence in the championship.
      I want to stress again that even if this were simply a racing incident, with both equally at fault, and everyone realized that, you’d still feel for Verstappen for coming off so much worse. I guess my point is that the incident is a convenient scapegoat for us non-Hamilton fans to put our frustration at Hamilton’s luck on something tangible. This is true whether Hamilton was entirely at fault for the incident or not.

      1. I guess my point is that the incident is a convenient scapegoat for us non-Hamilton fans to put our frustration at Hamilton’s luck on something tangible. This is true whether Hamilton was entirely at fault for the incident or not.

        I wish the rest of the non-Lewis fans were this honest.

      2. All true, nut besides the point. Lewis clearly made a mistake. If he owns up to it, fine. But instead he refers to Max dangerous style while it is only he himself who took at 3 RedBulls by now in exactly the same manner, for which he was penalised all three times. So that makes him a hypocrite. And a man that plays with lives. Nothing he can say or do in the future will take that image away. He has disqualified himself as a sir, as a racing driver and as a person. All he has achieved is hollowed out now. I hope he retires soon before he kills someone

        1. Verstappen is king of the double move when defending. Has got away with it on numerous occasions. That in its self is v dangerous and if there are corners where people should not overtake because its dangerous then the sport becomes an ass!!

        2. Remove the thin foil hat that’s blocking your judgement.

          This was pure racing incident. I put blame more on Max than to ham.
          1) HAM has nothing to loose everything to gain from the move that Max himself done so many times with lots of failures or people just let him slip by because it s not worth the danger.
          2) Max had everything to loose and little to gain from this, he had to back off. Now why should he you may ask. Well loosing 7 points vs 25 or this is lap one and he had whole race for opportunities to arise as well. People loose wdc with mere 1-5 points… So he ll soon realized how ham wins so many wdc and GPs.
          3) Ham if you ask me, is probably frustrated with Max’s antics: He double waves in braking zones, kamikaze dives when he shouldn’t, and don’t give any care if he crashes or not as result for so long so many times. If you think his moves are OK and brave etc, you shouldn’t be surprised this accident happened or should I say better, this was long time coming and he is lucky he got off this accident rather safely… A lot of people were saying that ham vs max collusion is inevitable and it was a matter of when!

          If you remove the blinkers and make a fair judgment, you will find why max had to bakc out of the move and carry on… He has huge ego unfortunately and that will hamper his wdc dreams.

      3. I think for most fans, it was just a very bitter result. Like, the incident wasn’t that major. Though as the stewards rightly surmised, slightly more shifted toward Hamilton in the blame department, it wasn’t really far from being any old race incident. The penalty, while meaningless, was fair as far as I’m concerned. It didn’t deserve a drive-through.

        However, for Max to lose that much ground to Hamilton over it, just gives the whole race a sour aftertaste. Max didn’t deserve that after how much work he’s put in to get that lead, and it’s the second time it happened to him that he lost a chunk of points through no real fault of his own.

        Of course, the excessive celebrations by Lewis running around like he’s Tom Cruise at Oprah, along with the lack of a mea culpa, just gave it an extra lemonsqueeze of bitterness too.

        So yeah, this would’ve been easier to take had it not been the English GP. Or had Hamilton pitted instead of continued on before the red flag and ended up at the back of the field at the restart. Just anything to make it feel more fair and not just the one driver taking the big hit over the incident.

      4. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
        19th July 2021, 10:11

        Penalties are not awarded for what happens after the incident and how can a penalty be decided on how good the car is?

        Italy playing San Marino. Italy concede a penalty but because they are so good San Marino get three goes!

        1. @andyfromsandy very good point. If anything the penalty was harsh given the precedent is to get a 5s penalty for that kind of incident. Had it been a slow corner Verstappen would almost certainly have recovered and finished in the top 4 at the very worst. Hamilton might still have broken his wheel so we’d be having a very different conversation now.

      5. The intemperate rants from Horner and Marko set the tone and the comments attributed to Verstappen from the hospital just added to that intemperate storm.

        As team leaders they were setting an example for their team fans and those who are Merc and Hamilton anti-fans.

        Of course they must voice their concerns and criticisms but in a considered and moderate way. The first shock of the incident would make some extreme comments excusable but they just ramped it up giving the impression that they would be satisfied only by having Hamilton’s head on a metaphorical spike at Silverstone gates and black flags at the podium ceremony.

        Marko and Horner are not temperate people and Jos Verstappen is a very aggressive and intimidating father who is usually in the garage during a race. The testosterone flooded through and now they are stranded on an island of excess and finding it difficult to get back to a reasonable tone.

        Poor leadership and poor sportsmanship.

      6. Lewis was taking an extreme amount of risk at the expense of Max.
        What bugs me is that Lewis also almost hit Max on the rear tire exiting the first corner. If Max had run less wide there he would definitely have been hit, watch the replay. Then again in the 3rd corner, another near miss.
        But the 3rd time in 30 seconds was a hit.

        Then at the end of the race he positioned himself to take Charles out in the very same corner. And Charles, having seen the footage of the incident during the red flag, decided to steer away and missed the corner, letting Lewis by.
        Lewis did not need to do it that way. He would have gotten by cleanly at the next opportunity, such was his overspeed.

        If I think back over the years, how much I enjoyed Lewis debut succes, how bad I felt for him just missing out on a rookie WDC title, how happy I was when he won in 2008, how much I hoped he would beat ‘dirty and lucky’ Nico in 2016…
        But now he hits a Red Bull on the rear tire for the 3rd year in succession, crashing them from the podium out of the points. All the sympathy I had for him is wasted. I feel betrayed.

        1. “What bugs me is that Lewis also almost hit Max on the rear tire exiting the first corner.”

          That only happened because Verstappen tried to take the corner much quicker, as if no one was at his side. On corner entry they were practically side by side, Hamilton tried to take the corner as if someone was there, sure he got a bit of understeer, but you could see his intention was to make the corner properly, Verstappen took the corner full-beans like no one was there and thus heading into the apex he got himself slightly ahead.

          1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
            19th July 2021, 11:16

            Max off the track should yield but came back on in the lead.

      7. @kimiraikkonen1207

        You are ignoring that Lewis lied about the incident, acted like he got the win on merit and didn’t seem to care all that much about Max. I think that these all play a major role in the anger.

        I really think that the outrage would be a hundred times less if Lewis had said: “I made a mistake by being too aggressive and got incredibly lucky. My apologies to Max and I hope he recovers quickly.”

      8. Great and concise comment, I can agree 100% really. The thing is, if Hamilton (or any other driver) was to repeat this move every single race he’d win the championship. In this case maybe doing it once will prove to be enough, maybe not. He didn’t try to push Verstappen I’m sure, but I’m also sure that he chose not to prevent it as well (either he let me go or he goes out mentality). It was a calculated move where intention is hard to prove, but also its in the grey area of the rules. Verstappen does the same sometimes in all fairness. But the fact that you can do this every single race, eliminate the only rival, get 10 second penalty… Does that mean that the rules are somewhat wrong? We want “hard racing”, at the same time we don’t want unfair outcomes. At the end of the day we just want the race to end the way we like it, being supporters of one driver or just being bored of another. But then I don’t want championships to be decided like this (or like the Senna and Prost incident).

        1. If the stewards believed he was doing it intentionally he’d get an immediate ban. The idea someone could repeatedly do it race after race is insane – although the sport does seem to be run by maniacs sometimes!

    6. F1oSaurus (@)
      19th July 2021, 9:46

      @paeschli You can make a list where Verstappen has been lucky that’s way longer. I mean even when Hamilton gets a flat tyre in Silverstone he’s called lucky. When it was Verstappen who actually was lucky to gained a place due to Bottas getting a flat and would have won the race if he hadn’t gotten too greedy and wanted the fastest lap instead.

      Or when he ran on too low tyre pressures in Baku, burst the tyre because of that and was lucky that Hamilton had an issue with the button placement on his steering wheel.

      Not getting the penalty he clearly deserved in Austria 2019 (as evidenced by the fact that the same situation was penalized for everybody since)

      All those spins where Verstappen just got away with it while it ended the race for others, crashing into the wall and still starting the race in Hungary, the dive bombings where other drivers did jump out of the way. The list goes on and on and on.

      1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
        19th July 2021, 10:13

        I think Stroll has done a similar turn in twice. Once he ended upside down.

        It is the emotion of what happened afterward and the effect it has had on the championship. Neither of which is apparently in the minds of the stewards.

    7. AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
      19th July 2021, 12:17

      On the flip side of the coin, wasn’t Verstappen lucky that Hamilton slid off in the wet at Imola and thus wasn’t there to capitalize when he went off on to the grass? Wasn’t he lucky when Hamilton messed up his ‘brake-magic’, an error rarely seen and thus was not able to capitalize on his tyre deflation in Baku? Wasn’t he lucky that F1 announced a double header in Austria mid-season, a circuit which Red Bull has generally done well at and eventually went on to dominate 2 weekends instead of 1?
      Luck/fortune/whatever you want to call it tends to even out over the course of a season. If it was one sided, we’d be seeing a massive gap in the championship standings.

      1. Indeed @asleepatthewheel. One doesn’t win a championship without some luck helping you along the way.

    8. @paeschli The best sportsmen appear to have the most luck. It’s uncanny how often it happens.

    9. Phillip Francis
      19th July 2021, 22:53

      As a Yank from across the pond, and a new fan to F1, and who doesn’t have a dog in this fight, can some explain to me why what Hamilton did incurred a penalty. To my unsophisticated American eyes it appeared that Hamilton was not quite hugging the wall on the right (seemed like he had a couple of feet to his right), and that it was Verstappen who turned hard right into Hamilton. After the contact when Verstappen went hard left (and I do mean hard left, like 51g’s hard) Hamilton then veered left himself, across the track, but if you back up the recording and go frame-by-frame when the contact first occurred Hamilton was still in the same position of just a couple of feet off that wall to his right. So, if Hamilton was in the same position relative to the wall and Verstappen hits him trying to be as tight around that turn, then why is this Hamilton’s fault?

      During the telecast the announcers and other experts were talking about “the apex of the turn” and they seemed to be saying that Verstappen was entitled to a position as close to the apex as possible even if Hamilton happens be there, so long as Hamilton is behind him. If that is the case, then I don’t get it. I would think that the back of Verstappen’s car would need to be clear of the front of Hamilton’s car to move in front of him. Otherwise, that’s like saying that a guy passing (sorry, overtaking) me on Interstate and wanting to move in front of me has the right to do so even though the front of my car is only 4 feet (call it a metre) behind the front of his car. In other words, if he moves over he hits me. Elucidation please!

  2. “What a roller-coaster ride of emotions,” said Hamilton to Sky F1. “A lot of anger after the shunt with Max and I just had to bury it and progress forward.

    “I just don’t feel he needs to be as aggressive as he is. We’re going down to Turn 6 and he’s bumping wheels with me. I tried to give him space but I was quite a long way up the inside into Turn 9, none of us backed out and that was the end result.

    “I managed for a long time to get around without colliding with someone, but when someone is just too aggressive these things are bound to happen.

    “There’s not a single driver here who doesn’t know how aggressive a driver he can be.

    “I enjoy racing with him and I’m looking forward. I would never back down from anyone and naturally not be bullied into being less aggressive.

    “I think this weekend we needed the points, there was a gap, he left a gap and I went for it.”

    So basically Lewis and most drivers on the grid feel Max is a bully and needs to be more respectful towards others. He can be a hard racer but without being overly aggressive and disrespectful.

    1. Most drivers who? Basically any other driver not driving for mercedes said the collision was lewis fault

      1. Even Button called it Hamilton’s fault in the post-race analysis and he’s always cheerleading Hamilton. Max was a bully in his early career, but he and Hamilton are generally fair racers.

        1. Hamilton is not a fair racer. I agree that post-2019 Max has been very fair.

          1. Biskit Boy (@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk)
            19th July 2021, 8:24

            Talking about luck and fairness won’t get you very far. Every situation is a bit different.

            I blame the F1 rule makers for this. No clear rule which defines fault in this scenario and quite often inappropriate punishment, so rules that are clear and precise are what’s needed here.

            Obviously Lewis’ move was pretty desperate, he knew this may be his only chance to overtake. Max was very aggressive in his defence. We all knew this might happen this season. Now it has.

            Both drivers could have done something to avoid the collision and neither did.

            I’m not saying Max should have driven a wider line to avoid Lewis, but he certainly could have. It would have been prudent.

            Look at turn 6 on the first lap. Similar situation with Lewis on the outside, but Lewis drove a much wider line knowing Max might understeer into him. In fact Max drove all of the way to the edge of the track on the exit so if Lewis had not done this there would have been contact. This is what Lewis means when he says Max is over aggressive (don’t get me started on Imola).

            Also did Max do off the track in turn 1 defending his position? Is that allowed? Either way that was just as desperate as Lewis’ move in turn 9.

            Lewis use your experience, be honest and play fair.

            Max you are a big boy now. Play rough and you might get hurt.

      2. Which drivers are those? The only ones whose comments I’ve heard are:
        1. Ricciardo: Placed more blame on Lewis.
        2. Alonso: Racing incident.
        3. Leclerc: Racing incident.

        Which other drivers have commented so far?

        1. I’ll just include former racers here:
          – Chandhok: Racing incident.
          – Button: Racing incident as “Nick T.” said above.

        2. F1oSaurus (@)
          19th July 2021, 10:31

          @sebsronnie When adding ex-racers/analysts like Dave did, Also Joylon Palmer sees it as a racing incident.

        3. I would like to add that Pedro de la Rosa on the Spanish TV feed also thought racing incident.

      3. Most drivers said it was a racing incident or that it is difficult to judge.

        “It is difficult from the outside. It looked quite close, Lewis had more than half a car alongside Max.

        “So, in a way, Lewis could not disappear from the inside line, it’s not that you can vanish. It was an unfortunate moment of the race, but nothing intentional or nothing that any of the two drivers did wrong in my opinion.

        “That was an unlucky moment.”

        Fernando Alonso

    2. +1 It was time for a change.

    3. Rodric Ewulf
      19th July 2021, 7:40

      Not sure if it will get him a WDC but a BAT (Bias Award Trophy) certainly will be nailed on.

    4. “I managed for a long time to get around without colliding with someone, but when someone is just too aggressive these things are bound to happen.

      A blatant lie as he’s bumped off Albon twice recently. For not being respectful of course (trying to overtake).

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        19th July 2021, 13:55

        @balue Those crashes were amateurish by Albon and cost Albon a victory and his ride.

        1. @freelittlebirds They were amateurish from Hamilton and cost him a penalty in each instance. In reality they were not amateurish, because we all know how good Hamilton is in duels. They were intentional bump-offs for being disrespectful (trying to humiliatingly pass on the outside in a bad car).

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            19th July 2021, 16:25

            @balue well, if you feel Hamilton deserved those penalties then you’re entitled to that opinion. Incident #1, Albon nearly went off track on that corner and Lewis capitalized. Albon tried to correct and ran into Lewis.

            Incident #2 Only Albon could collide into Lewis there and give up a victory :-) Everyone else did not have a collision there except poor Albon who forgot that his steering wheel can move and simply drove into Lewis…

    5. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      19th July 2021, 13:57

      The penalty was ridiculous – if I have to chime in about it, then it’s clearly the wrong decision by the stewards.

  3. I’m actually really confused. When does the “car on the inside owns the corner” rule apply, or not apply? Maybe it doesn’t exist at all.

    1. When did it become a thing that the car in front must always yield to an overtake attempt? Verstappen was on the racing line, Hamilton was on an alternative line that if he’d aimed closer to the apex, the collision would not have occurred.
      In one of the slow-mo repeats on Sky, it even shows Verstappen opening the steering up when he relaises how deep Hamilton has gone.
      100% Hamilton’s fault, and anyone who says otherwise is just a Hamilton fan boy (or girl)

    2. As I understand it the rule applies (and applied in this case as well) when you have substantial portion of your car alongside the other car (in this case Hamilton was almost fully alongside).

      However, he was apparently penalised for failing to fit into the space that Verstappen rightly left him on the inside. It seems that Vestappen actually left him a car-width or a bit more on the inside and Hamilton failed to make the corner in that space.

      So the rule applied but different one was the decisive one.

    3. I think the stewarding/regulations are as much as fault as Hamilton.

      If a driver is judged to be at fault and given a penalty the then the punishment should outweigh any benefit from it.

      10s penalty is not enough if you cause another driver to retire. How about a similar system to qualifying when you get a 3 place grid penalty? So a driver gets a 3 place race penalty for the current race?

      1. If a driver is judged to be at fault and given a penalty the then the punishment should outweigh any benefit from it.

        Fair point.
        But was there any benefit for Hamilton? He was 2nd before the clash; he was 2nd afterwards.

        Including, or offsetting, other driver’s misfortune, let alone WDC consequences, is sheer impossible.
        I think only karma can solve this; Lewis’s account is well overdrawn.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          20th July 2021, 8:39

          It’s actually Karma that hit back at Verstappen for all the time where he puts on his blinders going into a turn hoping the other driver jumps out of his way.

      2. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
        19th July 2021, 10:18

        No penalty ever seems to fit. Take a new engine and start from the back, is not a lasting penalty either and for some drivers they still recover into good points positions.

      3. You’ll note that the stewards didn’t say that Hamilton was wholly at fault for the collision. Meaning they attributed some fault to Verstappen as well. They decided Hamilton was more at fault, but we don’t know by how much. The application of only the second most lenient penalty suggests it wasn’t as one-sided as some think.

        The best summary I heard (can’t remember from whom) was: Both drivers could have done more to avoid a collision, but neither did. Racing incident.

    4. GtisBetter (@)
      19th July 2021, 7:50

      Generally when you are alongside a car on the inside before they have to steer in. And you have to make the corner. There is this grey area where people say that if the car on the inside is halfway along you have to give space, but the problem with this is that a divebomb can put you in that position. But that also makes it highly unlikey that you make the corner, resulting in a collison or forcing another driver of track. Though every corner is a different case.

      1. Indeed every corner is different.
        In high speed corners ‘divebombs’ don’t really exist (should not happen) as that would be a guaranteed crash. In those turns it’s give space and allow the front car to make a normal ‘arc’ (1 car width at entry is not enough as you force the car off track later on, like Leclerc).

        Slower corners allow for divebombs or other ways to force the outer car to take an evasive line (as long as you leave enough space in the turn).

        1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
          19th July 2021, 10:21

          LeClerc I thought made his own mind up to go wide. Unfortunately I think the track is dirty there and he understeered onto the rough stuff making it look worse than it had to.

    5. The car on the inside rule didn’t apply here – Hamilton was sufficiently alongside into the braking area (for those with screenshots etc “proving” this not to be the case – it simply was, Hamilton just braked slightly earlier to make the corner. Verstappen had no chance of making the corner).

      The rule applied here was that Verstappen gave Hamilton a cars width on the inside, but Hamilton ran wide and made contact with Verstappen.

      Looking at Hamiltons pass on Leclerc – it was exactly the same scenario, but Hamilton was a good metre or so further to the right. I assume that if the pair had made contact it would be deemed to be wholly Leclercs fault as Hamilton was as far to the right as he could possibly be.

  4. And people will still say he’s within his rights to punt him off the road, putting him into hospital.

    And people will still ask why he’s not universally liked.

    And people will still blame racism.

    I’d have a lot more respect for Lewis if he just admitted he drove very poorly.

    1. Philip Taylor
      19th July 2021, 8:12

      God, this “putting him in hospital” trope is so hyperbolic. Horner has a lot to answer for. Max crashed, and he went to hospital for a mandatory checkup. He’s not lying there with two broken legs and an arm.

    2. Thats what I dont understand either. He clearly made a mistake. If he owns up to it, fine. But instead he showed his true colors. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and called it a racing incident with blame for Lewis, but based on his comments it seems it had some intend in it. And thats how a great sportsman destroys his reputation and everything he has achieved bu getting red mist form a youngster. I cant believe he has fallen this deep. I used to love the guy. Look at him now. He will probably go down the history books as the one that threw everything away and lost it while he never really needed to. He had respect and titles. Now all is gone.

      1. Except in the UK of course. They just soldier on, on the quest to isolate themselves from the rest of the world

        1. There are those in the UK that think Hamilton was in the wrong and should have apologised yesterday, please these sweeping generalisations about a nation are poor. The quality of the comments on racefans has nosedived recently, it’s sad.

      2. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
        19th July 2021, 10:25

        Your sentiment will last many days, weeks and maybe months. By tomorrow no driver will be thinking about it but how to get the car setup for Hungary.

        Martin Brundle always says the same thing. Drivers think about the bad and tragic moments for a few seconds as they climb in the car and then they think about how fast can they go.

      3. Only in your mind.

        Be honest, if the roles were reversed, you, just like Horner in Spain, would be singing Verstappen’s praises and banging on about how his aggressive, no-nonsense driving style had put some manners on Hamilton who cracked under pressure again.

        The simple fact is, Verstappen’s attitude to driving is to never concede any corner. Multiple times this season Hamilton has let Verstappen get away with overly-aggressive moves. This time was different and Hamilton didn’t concede the corner – justifiably IMHO, he was fully alongside Verstappen on the inside.

        Verstappen’s aggressive driving style was lauded when he was averaging less than two wins a season and had nothing to lose. He’s failed to realise that this season, when banging wheels and fighting for a corner, he’s now the driver with more to lose. He didn’t see the big picture.

    3. @joshgeake Drop the “putting him in hospital” nonsense. You make it sound like Verstappen was on life support. He was so ill that he could barely manage to Tweet passive-aggressive messages!

      All he’s got is a bruised ego.

  5. That whole first half a lap reminded me of Spain 2016, just the drivers were in different colored cars.

    I think Brundle nailed it during his commentary when he pointed out that this season every time VER and HAM found themselves on the same piece of track VER won the exchange, and Hamilton had to make sure the next time they meet he will stand firm. Hamilton had blinked more than a couple of times, and he was not going to be the first blink this time, the end result is for everyone to see.

    We see midfielders make moves that are just as risky while fighting for scraps.
    How is it a surprise something like this happens when racers race for the championship?

    Fantastic.

    Racing incident.

    1. Yeah I think this is an important angle to this. Hamilton can no longer play the long game.

      Since 2016 Verstappen has been able to count on Hamilton conceding. No more.

      I’ve been thinking all season long Hamilton needed to have the crash. I hope one is enough. I doubt it.

      I also think that both Hamilton and Verstappen have shown their attitude is an important part of their race craft. While Hamilton’s frustration shows, it appears to just make him a little poor driver. I’m concerned Verstappen’s anger will cause him penalties or other problems. The incident with Bottas at Monza, and pushing Ocon in Brazil, for example.

      I just don’t see how they’re not going to crash again. Hopefully they won’t be going so fast next time.

    2. There’s also another side to this – Verstappen’s apparent inability to moderate his aggression to the situation. His “I’ll never concede a corner” driving style might be acceptable when he’s averaging less than two wins a season and has nothing to lose.

      What he failed to realise at Silverstone is that this season he’s now in a position where he has more to lose than the guy he’s banging wheels with and fighting desperately for a corner. He simply didn’t, couldn’t or wouldn’t see the big picture.

  6. At this point Mercedes are just gleefully rubbing in just how absurd this whole sequence of event was.

  7. But Horner’s tune has changed since a
    similar incident at the Spanish Grand
    Prix, when Hamilton moved where
    Verstappen held firm, and the Brit
    was able to carry on racing.
    “Turn 1 was mega,” Horner said at the
    time. “I mean Max, that was full Max
    Verstappen – he was just going for it –
    and he positioned the car fantastically
    well.
    “He tucked in, he got a little bit of a
    tow and a bit of momentum. And
    yeah he just braked later and ran the
    car wide. Thankfully Lewis had got
    out of it because otherwise he would
    have ended up in the fence.”

    1. Philip Taylor
      19th July 2021, 8:15

      Absolutely! Thank you for exposing the rank hypocrisy of the man. RB are so wrapped up in Max’s success it’s a bit nauseating. You can hear it in CH’s voice when he comes on the radio at the end of race that Max won – they have to keep little Maxy happy at all costs it would appear.

    2. RandomMallard (@)
      19th July 2021, 8:17

      @conreezyk Different type of incident. In Spain, Lewis left Verstappen some room on the inside of the corner (if anything it was probably not enough room), and as Lewis squeezed Max onto the kerb, they were on different lines that would come across each other on the corner exit, not at/before the apex. The equivalent in this scenario (in my opinion as a Max fan, so feel free to disagree if you want) would have been them going side by side through the corner, and Lewis forcing Max off the track on the exit of Copse.

    3. RandomMallard (@)
      19th July 2021, 8:18

      I’ll also add hat if Hamilton hadn’t backed out and there had been contact, then Max would have probably been the one getting the penalty in Spain in the same way Hamilton got the penalty yesterday

    4. Well it seems that Horner just ate his own words then.

  8. I honestly can’t remember that last time I saw such polarizing F1 views on here and on social media. It’s a good job social media wasn’t around during they championship years of Prost/Senna/Schumacher!

    Nobody wants to see a high speed crash and nobody wants to see a race or championship decided by the ‘luck’ of who’s race survives a collision.

    What has shocked me is the sheer vitriol of comments referring to Lewis as a dirty driver, a cheat, a bully. The move seemed to be a racing incident, but the burdon of blame laying slightly more with Lewis. But it certainly was not a vindictive move, and doesn’t define his racing career which has seen 7 world championships and a surprisingly clean sheet.

    1. @geekzilla9000 I honestly believe you are giving Hamilton too much credit.

      Hamilton wasn’t making that corner. He knew (or at the very least ought to have known) what the outcome was likely to be – either Verstappen scampers off the track, as Leclerc had to do later in the race, or there is contact. I doubt Hamilton had time to acknowledge that, in a contact situation, Verstappen was likely to come off worse, but he must have known that contact was likely and been content with that potential outcome.

      To me it was a much higher-speed version of his collision with Albon in Austria last year, where he tried to run the other driver out wide without actually winning the corner first.

      The “surprisingly clean sheet” is a self-fulfilling prophecy because people are more likely to give Hamilton the benefit of the doubt, even as the incidents mount up. Consider Spain 2016. If Michael Schumacher had run off the track while fighting his title rival, kept his foot in and taken them both out of the race, what would people be calling it? But as Hamilton has a reputation for “clean” driving, people are much less likely to call him out for cynical moves.

      1. I think Hamilton was making the corner. He made the corner even after the contact with Verstappen rear wheel which visibly destabilized his turning. I cant say that with being 100% sure, but neither can you be sure Verstappen would have made the corner as well – since he was not turning from the very racing line.

        And I definitely do not see Hamilton incidents mount up. Could you name some examples from that pile?

        Considering Spain, it was Rosberg who run Hamilton off the track not Hamilton himself and your suggestion he kept his foot on throttle once on the grass to take Rosberg with him is baseless accusation.

    2. The move seemed to be a racing incident, but the burdon of blame laying slightly more with Lewis. But it certainly was not a vindictive move, and doesn’t define his racing career which has seen 7 world championships and a surprisingly clean sheet.

      I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment/statement.

      I just don’t like the consequences for the WDC of what happened here, and in general the ridiculous reset when having a red flag as referred to in this article. A double DNF would have been a ‘fairer’ outcome than a heroic win after overcoming a 10s penalty.

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        19th July 2021, 9:49

        Verstappen has gotten a pass on these bully tactics three times already. It’s about time he did lose out for one.

        1. So you’re defining Hamilton’s move as a ‘bully tactic’.

          Maybe a typo/brainfart, as you typically admire all he does in his slower car.

          1. F1oSaurus (@)
            19th July 2021, 13:26

            No its just your lack of reading comprehension. I was referring to Verstappen finally getting a reckoning for the bully tactics he constantly uses.

          2. Nothing amiss with my reading comprehension.
            Just next time ask your mum to check what you write.

            PS – I now understand why people refer to you as @F1oClown.

          3. F1oSaurus (@)
            20th July 2021, 7:54

            jff It is your reading comprehension though. Still is I guess. That’s the thing with average IQ’s people like you need to be well below the average to make up the average.

  9. **I have to say that I am getting quite sick of the ‘hospitalization’ being used as part of the argument.

    I do not see anyone suggesting that Max had to go to hospital as a good thing. I am a Hamilton fan, but I still chastised my wife for cheering as Max went off (though to be fair she did not anticipate the severity of the impact).

    My point is, if one wants to argue that the outcome should impact the penalty, then by all means do so in a reasoned way. But tagging it on an argument in a manner that suggests this was an obvious outcome – indeed almost as though intended – demonstrates a pretty terrible attitude. When discussing who is at fault I do not see any need to guilt trip other commenters by mentioning this at all, whatever ‘side’ you care to take.

    ** this is in response to some of the comments here and elsewhere rather than the article itself.

    1. A balanced opinion finally @cairnsfella. Doesn’t seem to hold much weight in this polarising culture these days, but some still appreciate it at least. There is hope.

    2. @cairnsfella – I agree. Max ended up having a bad crash and thankfully seemed to sustain no significant injury, he went to hospital for a check over as is prudent in such a situation. The emotive language used was pretty much “Lewis put Max in hospital” as though he pulled a move with the actual intention of hospitalising him. The fact Max was in hospital was capitalised on by some without putting into true context (he was having a routine check over and not in critical condition). Has there been significant injury I have no doubt that the race would have been stopped, or at least any podium would have been subdued with no celebrating.

      I’m a fan of both Max and Lewis, I don’t enjoy seeing any overly negative comments to/from either. I think that Max has the edge this season in terms of confidence and machinery, and fingers crossed we see more battles, but not the same outcome.

      1. The only reason why you can say that a 51G crash didn’t put Max in hospital, is the safety of the cars.
        Other then that there was motive and opportunity.

      2. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
        19th July 2021, 10:34

        The FIA could of told MB that Lewis must pit immediately or stop the car after crossing the line with no celebrations. They could then of had a subdued ceremony.

        As they allowed it who is at fault here if Lewis takes a lap of applause.

        1. I’m actually not sure they could have. I haven’t studied the most recent Concorde agreement, but the provision that the fia can dictate the speech of team members vanished many many years ago

  10. Max had a better car and in my opinion would have been better to back off and let Lewis have the corner. Max could overtake Lewis later. That approach is what great drivers with superior equipment have done in the past.
    Instead, Max risked a collision, and unfortunately that’s what he got.
    Shame, might have been a great race.

    1. @juliangoddard I disagree. We have seen all season that Max and RBR have not assumed anything about their apparent superior equipment to Mercedes. It has been a race at a time, and ahead of Silverstone they fully expected Mercedes to be much stronger. As well, a 33 point lead with so many points to be had is not something Max or RBR would hang their hat on as they knew that all it would take is a dnf for them and a win for LH and he’s right back in it. And sure enough, look what happened.

      No, it is far more that great drivers stamp their authority on the situation while it is at hand, and not assume they will be able to overtake later. Not assume they have superior equipment and therefore it’ll just be a cakewalk. Isn’t that what LH was doing? He was not assuming that if Max cleared him at that corner he (LH) would just pass him somewhere else.

      Max didn’t ‘risk a collision’ any more than racers racing do. The collision was put predominantly on LH according to the stewards and hence his penalty. Backing off and letting LH have the corner would not have been WDC material, especially for the one that was ahead in the corner. Do you think LH won all his WDC’s especially against NR, while being ahead of him in a corner, by backing off? And he didn’t do that in 2016 when he lost it to NR either.

      While perhaps there is a time, with a 33 point lead, and only a few races to go in the season, it might be prudent to go conservative in order to preserve one’s lead in the WDC, that was not the case yesterday.

    2. @juliangoddard Agreed. Verstappen didn’t/couldn’t or wouldn’t see the big picture.

  11. Mislav Krpan
    19th July 2021, 9:03

    I was thinking exactly the other way around, the Mercedes was the faster car on this track, as we’ve seen during quali (the normal one), and much faster on the straits, so I thought that Hamilton should’ve waited a bit to get a better chance, and overtake on the straight.
    But this course of action proved much better for Hamilton, not only did he win, but he also took out his only competitor, who won 0 points.

    1. The Mercedes was faster when the track was cooler. The race was a lot hotter.

    2. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      19th July 2021, 10:36

      On a coupe of occasions Max weaved quite a bit on the straights and at one point it appeared wheels touched.

  12. I’m very disappointed by Hamilton. This is not how a true sportsman should act. A desperate move by a frustrated man. And the penalty was a joke – it should have been at least a 10-sec. Stop and Go.

  13. Well, as much as I finally calmed down after the incident and the incredible amount of Hamilton’s luck… I am still disgusted with HAM and Merc celebrations after the race. Max crashed out heavily with the need to go to hospital, Merc’s extremely lucky repair under the red flag, Ferrari engine issues, BOT slowing down to pedestrian pace to let HAM through… and they act as they fought it out in clean battle, with all the “get in there”, “it came home” and union jacks all over the place.

    I would expect the most accomplished F1 driver in history to be more respectful after a race win like this – surely he does not want to win the championship this way. Especially that HAM is always very vocal on safety, equality, sportsmanship etc. – hypocrisy, isn’t it?

    1. Hypocrisy is yours this time. Hamilton won the race in a clean battle. Not with Verstappen. But with Leclerc, and on the pace. The Ferrari pace was superb on mediums, less so on hards, but still impressive. Order to Bottas was logical and only solution since he did not have the pace. Did you call team order to Perez in France farcical or hypocrisy? He slowed down similarly back then. I think not.

      1. Well, if he did not have a clean battle with Verstappen then a he did not have a clean win, did he? You cannot say the race was clean “but not with Verstappen”. If that is not a hypocrisy than nothing is. But more than that, I am quite upset that Merc was able to repair the car under the red flag caused by the incident. Why not let RBR repair Max’s car or get him a spare as in the old times?

        Obviously they were allowed to do that under the regulations (no argument there) but it does not feel right.

        As per team orders, I am not a fan in general, no matter the team.

    2. did you expect lewis to build a shrine for max and wear a black arm band after the race?
      max was ok…he got out of his car by himself,and walked to the ambulance.
      the way some of you are talking,youd think max was pulled from his car unconcious,and airlifted to hospital.

    3. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      19th July 2021, 10:37

      Direct your ire at the FIA. Why not ask them why they didn’t stop the celebrations?

    4. Didn’t Verstappen celebrate his podium while Grosjean was in the hospital after that horrofic crash in Bharein last year? Why is this problem right now?

    5. Verstappen’s trip to hospital was purely precautionary. People keep banging on about “Hamilton putting Verstappen in hospital” like he was on life support and the priest was there. Let’s not forget that Verstappen was well enough to Tweet his passive-aggressive message from that very hospital.

      Hamilton asked if he was OK over the radio and didn’t know until the post race interviews that Verstappen had gone to hospital. Let’s also not forget that Verstappen himself was happy to enjoy the podium in Bahrain after Grosjean’s horrendous crash.

  14. why didnt keith post everything shovlin said,,which was

    “We didn’t think the penalty was deserved,” Shovlin said.

    “If you look at the guide that the stewards have to determine who is at fault in terms of overtaking, Lewis was sufficiently alongside and we felt that Max should have given him racing room.

    “If you look at the sprint race and even the opening lap of the main race, Lewis was constantly having to back out of it to avoid a collision and he was able to put his car into a position where he was able to stand his ground.

    “Max drives aggressively and it’s inevitable that one day we were going to get an accident there.

    “But we were pleased with the job that Lewis did and slightly disappointed to get the penalty, we were just relieved we were still able to win the race.”

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      19th July 2021, 9:55

      That’s the thing with Verstappen. He doesn’t even bother with driving a defensive line to prevent being overtaken. he simply puts on his blinders and takes the racing line as if there is no car besides him. Hoping that the other car will back out of it. Well it didn’t happen since Hamilton was fully alongside and rightly expected Verstappen to yield.

      The sad thing is that Verstappen usually gets away with it and other drivers are starting to copy this foul style of “defending” position. Joylon Palmer gave a good overview of how bad this is for the sport after Austria. This is not “hard racing” it just like blocking. It makes actual racing impossible if you always force a crash if your opponent doesn’t yield.

      1. @f1osaurus

        fully alongside

        Weird then that he hit Max’ rear wheel with his front wheel.

        1. If you watch the reply from Max’s onboard you’ll see Hamilton’s front wing is in shot, he was practically alongside before the turn in when Hamilton then decided to lift off as he could see Max was turning in on him.

          The images of the contact are after Hamilton has backed off so it looks like he was behind, which he was at the point of impact.

          1. @davidjwest Hamilton was indeed nearly alongside Verstappen, but then when he gets to the corner with that sharp angle he needs to reduce his speed more than Verstappen, otherwise he will never be able to make the corner. In the fight with Leclerc Hamilton showed what he should have done in his fight with Verstappen. Brake a bit earlier, hit the apex and try to get to Verstappen in the next corner.

          2. @davidjwest To be more precise, from Max’s onboard when you see LH’s front wing in the shot, sure Max was steering right because it is a right-hander, but as Karun points out Max then jinks his wheel to the left when he see’s LH so close. Imho Max was likely surprised he was so close, as he himself was so far away from the apex that he knew he had left LH miles of room inside him. Max wasn’t turning in on LH but he was turning to take/keep his racing line. It only appears Max was turning in on LH because LH was so close to him, being so far away from the apex.

          3. @davidjwest

            The relevant moment is when they touch. You are only really alongside if you are can drive alongside for the corner, otherwise it is dive bomb or torpedo.

            A dive bomb is only a valid move if you take the racing line before the other car takes it, otherwise it is just an attempt to bully or punt the other drive off the racing line. Lewis seemed to back out of his dive bomb when he realized he couldn’t make it, but then he didn’t manage to do what a driver is supposed to do in that situation: take the space that is left by the driver in front (where that driver is obligated to leave a car’s width).

        2. @aapje Hamilton was fully alongside Verstappen. Watch the onboard video available on a well known video website.

        3. F1oSaurus (@)
          20th July 2021, 7:57

          @aapje Feeling embarrassed now seeing how many explain to you that indeed they were side by side?

          Seriously though, if you have no clue what you are talking about why post? No really, just think about it. Actually take the time to review the evidence before you post. It takes a few seconds and you won’t look so dumb every time. Or is that what you are going for?

    2. In response to Shovlin, I don’t see how or why Max needed to give LH more racing room than he did. LH was way off the apex as it was. Come on, there’s leaving a guy room, and then there’s going out of your way to open to door completely up and risk going wide and off the track, which is hardly what Max was going to do, nor would LH have if the spots were reversed.

      1. There’s also having the brain to realise two cars into that turn isn’t going to work under those circumstances, Leclerc and Norris figured it out, Max didn’t.

        Max 0 points.
        Norris 12 points
        Leclerc 18 points.

        See – brains mean points here.

        Max never yields, hopefully he has now learned a valuable lesson.

  15. F1oSaurus (@)
    19th July 2021, 10:02

    It’s good that Karma rectified so many unjust things that Verstappen did over the last few races.

  16. What baffles me is the sheer amount of red flags we have nowadays. Has anyone counted how many we’ve had in the last couple of seasons? Red flags seemed a rarity even 10 years ago.

    I understand the need to improve safety, but it feels that, ever since we’ve had standing starts for red flags, they’ve become more frequent.

    Is it really that dangerous for marshalls to retrieve a car / repair a barrier while the cars drive behind the safety car? On a modern track with dry weather it certainly doesn’t feel ‘unsafe’.

    Anyways, I’m sure race control knows best..

    1. It is all about standing starts. FIA/Liberty wants them because they bring more action, duels etc.

      If it wasnt for standing starts the red flag is actually better than Safety Car as the lap countdown stops and long SC periods can be considered dangerous with the tyre-heating issues.

    2. Every time the goat simulator needs repairs, a red flag will be produced. And they call it luck, like it was an act of Nature

      1. You may need some ointment for that hurt.

  17. This current battle reminds me of the Rosberg – Hamilton battles we used to have. Except this time Verstappen is Hamilton and Hamilton is Rosberg.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      19th July 2021, 10:34

      Exactly, Rosberg had the same problem that he would not yield when he had actually lost the position and would rather crash with Hamilton instead.

      1. @f1osaurus

        What actually happened is that Lewis bullied Rosberg, who yielded until he decided to take a stand Rosberg did so in a rule-breaking way, so he got a penalty.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          19th July 2021, 16:12

          @aapje Also wrong. Rosberg knew he had to yield to other drivers, he just would never against Hamilton. Extremely unintelligent viewers like you who think that being squeezed off the racing line where you have no right to be is somehow something wrong. It’s not. But you will never understand unless it happens against Verstappen, then whatever happens is a foul.

          Try to at least learn the basic rules and stop wasting people’s time with your sad drivel.

          1. @f1osaurus

            Rosberg yielded many times before he finally took a stand. Your ‘reality’ is so biased that it is farcical.

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            20th July 2021, 8:01

            @aapje So you still don’t get the point. I get that you are just unable or unwilling to actually understand.

            So I will just refer you to Brundle who talks about a “disappearing wedge”. If you actually want to understand find out what he means with that.

    2. Or vice versa.

  18. This makes it even more remarkable that they did not pit him immediately he complained he had damage.
    Did they know it was going to be red flagged before hand?

    1. @geekracer2000 Not for sure, but Mercedes probably anticipated the red flag, hence, didn’t pit from lap 1, which proved a wise move.

    2. Its normal to stay put if in doubt about the severity: unless its severe its usually better to wait for a pit stop.

      The commentators on C4 pretty quickly reckoned it would be red-flagged though. Could be the team had realised the same, in which case they should stay out and keep position. Given it was lap one, they be at the back anyway, so there was also no need to rush into a pit stop if it had stayed yellow.

  19. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    19th July 2021, 12:13

    The more I think about it the stupider it was by Max. At the end of the day you have a big lead in championship, you always come off worse in incidents if you’re on the outside. Why would you not give Lewis a bit of extra space. It’s a long season and a long race. Lewis had nothing to lose, he had everything and did.

    1. IfImnotverymuchmistaken
      19th July 2021, 12:51

      The thing is, he did give Lewis all the space he needed, Lewis just chose not to use it. That was the steward’s explanation for giving Hamilton the penalty, as I remember reading.

      1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
        19th July 2021, 13:18

        He left a cars width possibly but should have been more sensible with everything to lose. I agree Hamilton was more to blame but this isn’t a court case, this is racing. He needs a bit more self preservation for a long season does Max.

      2. Their verdict also said that Hamilton was predominantly (but not wholly, note) to blame hence the penalty. The inference from the words and the penalty handed out being that Verstappen shared some of the blame (but less than Hamilton in the opinion of the stewards).

    2. @rdotquestionmark Yes, Verstappen guilty of not seeing the big picture.

      His “I’ll never give up a corner” attitude was fine when he had nothing to lose. What he seems to have failed to take into account is that he’s now in a situation where he has more to lose than the driver he’s banging wheels with.

      He could easily have let Hamilton go and then spend the next 50-odd laps racing for a possible win. Worst case would be he loses a few points from his comfortable lead. But no…

      1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
        20th July 2021, 8:12

        Exactly my point @scbriml

        It was a game of chicken, a battle of egos to an extent.

  20. So here at RaceFans we went from “LET THEM RACE” to “the penalty for retiring another driver should be retirement for the driver at fault.” Wow. Almost every race someone in the mid to back of the grid is ruined on lap 1 with either retirement or the need for a lengthy pit stop for repairs and nothing is posted. The one of the prima donnas gets crunched and the whining is pathetic. If the roles were reversed, it would be the Lewis fans whining. This is F1. Top 20 drivers in the world in the top 20 racecars in the world at the best tracks in the world, pushing the limits.

    1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      19th July 2021, 12:39

      The hysterics are pathetic aren’t they. This is racing!

    2. IfImnotverymuchmistaken
      19th July 2021, 13:00

      I agree, this is racing, and that’s what happens, some times hard racing can get out of the drivers’ control, and stuff like this happens.
      I think the anti-Hamiltonism is more because of his incredible luck, where he not only suffered just minor damage, but didn’t even lose a single millisecond to make the repairs, and was then left the fastest car on the track, capable of negating the penalty with ease, all because he shunted his only rival.
      I think the general consensus would be “racing incident” if they both had suffered DNFs, or both had been able to continue the race.

  21. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    19th July 2021, 14:02

    It was a sympathy penalty – Lewis did nothing wrong on track. theWhile the stewards could have penalized Max for the double defense and the contact, they usually don’t penalize a driver who gets himself taken out of the race while the other continues. Plus Horner was screaming for help in the championship so the stewards threw a chip his way to make Red Bull happy…

    Ultimately, though, Max’s shenanigans would have taken Lewis out were it for the red flag.

    What a comeback though by Lewis at his home track! One for the ages!

    1. Exactly this.

  22. What is next?

    I guess Max will gladly take 10 seconds penalty at the next opportunity, maybe the next race.

    1. It’s probably the only way Max can win future races now that Hamilton’s back on form.

      1. Lewis is on the form, but he is getting desperate, feels that the championship is slipping out of sight because he doesn’t have a superior car anymore.

        1. Always a red flag when the barriers have to be repaired – heavy vehicles on the track.

          1. Ignore, replied to wrong post, sorry!

        2. Watching the first few corners, I only saw one desperate driver. He wasn’t driving a Mercedes.

  23. This season, red flag is only driven by toto.
    Many time they continue with safety car.. nowadays its red flag..

    1. Always a red flag when barriers have to be repaired due to heavy vehicles on the track.

  24. Am I the only person that doesn’t understand why a broken wheel rim would have caused Hamilton’s retirement? It’s not that they can’t change a tire in the pits?

  25. My biggest qualm was the penalty. The stewards need to “penalize the driver”, not “give out a penalty”. The red flag meant Lewis didn’t drop down the grid or retire. Nor is a 10-second wait during a pitstop hard to undo when you’re second and the only other competitive machine nearby is your teammate in 3rd.

    He needed to be penalized from keeping his racing advantage, that meant being sent far down the order and fighting in traffic. And if he still wins, good on him, it’s a less questionable victory.

    That 10s penalty was as Alonso would say, “A joke.”

    @keithcollantine It would be great to have an article highlighting instances where drivers who were penalized midrace were given penalties that didn’t really negate their gained advantage.

    1. Schumacher at Canada 1998? Hamilton at Valencia 2010? Hülkenberg at Abu Dhabi 2017?

    2. I suspect the stewards felt it was a racing incident, like most drivers did, so they gave a small penalty just to try to even up the fact that Max was scoring zero whilst Hamilton was likely going to get a good haul of points.

      They certainly didn’t think it was deliberate or Hamilton would be getting a ban and quite rightly so.

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