After a jubilant victory at the British Grand Prix to end his 945 days winless drought, Lewis Hamilton earned his 200th career podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix last week. However, the road to P3 was certainly tedious for the seven-time world champion as his W15 struggled to adapt to the weather.
On top of that, Lewis Hamilton had to fight with old rival Max Verstappen. Tensions escalated during the closing laps of the race as both touched, pushing Max off the road. While FIA stewards deemed it a racing incident in a post-race investigation, Verstappen and Red Bull senior Helmut Marko pinned the blame on Hamilton.
Helmut Marko Refuses To Hold Max Verstappen Accountable For Hungary Crash
The Hungarian Grand Prix time traveled back to 2021 as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen went wheel-to-wheel during the closing laps of the ace. With both cars lapping a Williams, Verstappen saw a corner and went for an optimistic move. However, he locked up at turn 1 and clipped Hamilton’s front wing, which left him airborne for a while. Max went wide and eventually lost the P4 position to Lewis. That being said, the stewards closed the investigation as they found the crash was a racing incident. However, the Red Bull driver blamed the Mercedes champion and accused him of moving under braking. But his race engineer refused to have a childish radio fight with Mercedes.
Meanwhile, Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko agreed to Max Verstappen’s assessment and blamed Lewis Hamilton for the incident. He said while Max locked up under braking, he would have definitely made the corner had Lewis left some space. “Max was ahead, but Hamilton just turned in, everyone could see what happened then,” Marko said. Not only that, the senior advisor believes that had the incident been averted, Verstappen could have gained a place and finished P4 ahead of Charles Leclerc. Interestingly, Marko also defended Verstappen’s angry radio rant, saying the driver was frustrated the whole weekend due to his car’s lack of pace compared to McLaren, and emotions flared in the heat of the moment. “One thing led to another, emotions ran high, with comments from the race engineer and also from Max that were inappropriate, to put it politely,” Marko further added.
Lewis Hamilton Takes Dig At Max Verstappen Over Hungary Incident
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton ditched the blame game and called his crash with Max Verstappen a racing incident. He dismissed the allegations of moving under braking, saying he had left enough space for Max to make the corner. But the Red Bull driver locked up, leading to the crash. However, it seemed a genuine mistake from his side.
Having said that, Lewis Hamilton admitted that he went over to Max Verstappen to break the ice and he does not feel there needs to be any hostility towards any of the two drivers. But at the same time, Hamilton took a dig at Max’s attitude and said from Verstappen’s side some degree of hostility always exists.
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