‘He knew going what was going to happen, but he still did it’: Lewis Hamilton blames Max Verstappen for horror crash that saw Red Bull car land on his head, but his rival insists ‘that’s what happens when you don’t give space’
- Lewis Hamilton says Max Verstappen was to blame for crash at Italian Grand Prix
- Verstappen’s Red Bull car landed on Hamilton’s head after collision on lap 26
- Hamilton pointed out that Verstappen ‘just didn’t wan to give way’ to him
Lewis Hamilton has blamed Max Verstappen for the crash that occurred at the Italian Grand Prix.
The title rivals collided on lap 26, with the Red Bull Car landing on Hamilton’s head.
Hamilton, who remains five points behind Verstappen, stressed that the 23-year-old ‘just didn’t want to give way’.
Lewis Hamilton (L) has blamed Max Verstappen (R) for the crash at the Italian Grand Prix
The protective halo device stopped Hamilton from suffering serious injury.
The incident occurred after Hamilton left the pit lane, with Verstappen competing with him for position.
Hamilton told Sky Sports: ‘I’m a little bit stiff and sore on my neck because it landed on my head, but I’ll be ok.
‘Just from what I remember, I was racing as fast as I could, I was in the lead time wise, they fitted me, the pitstop was slow and I lost a couple of seconds. I came out, I saw Max was coming, I left a car’s width, was ahead going into turn one, ahead in turn two, then he’s on top of me.
‘He just didn’t want to give way today. He knew going into turn two what was going to happen, going over the kerb, but he still did it. We will talk to the stewards but I don’t know what to say.
‘I’m sure we will talk when we get to the stewards.’
Hamilton stressed that Verstappen ‘just didn’t want to give way’ going into the second turn
Verstappen stated that Hamilton ‘kept on squeezing’ him and said that there was little he could do when the British driver was ‘not willing to to work’ to make the corner.
The pair also collided at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix in July.
Verstappen said: ‘We realise it was going to be close into turn one, we cut across and I had to go onto the green part. He realised I was going for it, he kept on squeezing me, I wanted to race.
Verstappen said Hamilton was ‘not willing to work’ in order for both cars to get past the corner
‘You automatically talk about Silverstone these things happen and we are all professional to get on with it. I didn’t expect him to keep on squeezing, if he’d given me a car width we would have raced out of turn two. Then there was nowhere to go, he pushed me onto the sausage kerb, we touched. He kept on squeezing as I was alongside him.
‘You need two people to work together to make the corner, we were fighting for position and unfortunately we touched.
‘If one guy is not willing to work, what can you do? It’s not going to happen.
‘It is very unfortunate what happened today, nobody likes to see that but we are professional enough to step over and keep going.’
Daniel Ricciardo won the race ahead of his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, with Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes in third.