Lewis Hamilton blames Max Verstappen for horror crash that saw Red Bull car land on his head,
‘He KNEW what was going to happen, but he still did it’: Lewis Hamilton fumes as Max Verstappen is given three-place grid penalty for horror crash that saw Red Bull car land on his head… but Dutchman insists it was the Brit’s fault
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 26Hamilton pointed out that Verstappen ‘just didn’t want to give way’ to himThe Red Bull driver accused Hamilton of ‘squeezing him’ on that Monza cornerVerstappen has received a three-place grid penalty for the Russian Grand Prix
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){
var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0];
s.src = src;
prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev);
}(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle–.js”, document, “script”));
<!–
DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle–.css”);
<!–
Lewis Hamilton has blamed Formula One title rival Max Verstappen for the crash that occurred at the Italian Grand Prix.
The fierce rivals collided on lap 26 at Monza, with the Red Bull car’s wheel landing on Hamilton’s head. Thankfully for the seven-time Formula One champion, the protective Halo device on the Mercedes car protected him from serious injury
Hamilton, who remains five points behind Verstappen, stressed that the 23-year-old ‘just didn’t want to give way’ and the stewards sided with the Brit too, giving Verstappen a three-place grid penalty for the Russian Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.
Lewis Hamilton was saved from serious injury by the protective Halo device on his Mercedes after the Red Bull of Max Verstappen flew off a banked curve and up over his car during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza
The rear end of Verstappen’s Red Bull came within inches of Hamilton’s head after their dramatic collision at Monza
The two drivers took each other out as they tussled for position in the latest dramatic twist in their championship tussle
Verstappen’s Red Bull flies over Hamilton’s Mercedes after they collided jostling for position on the first corner of the 26th lap
The Red Bull was left nose-first in the gravel trap with the Mercedes wedged underneath after the sensational crash
The damage inflicted on Hamilton’s car just inches behind his head is visible as the reigning world champion steps out
The incident occurred after Hamilton left the pit lane, with Verstappen competing with him for seventh position at the time of the crash.
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.’
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 two championship rivals jostled for position on the chicane after Hamilton had just emerged from the pit lane
Wheel-to-wheel, the two drivers refused to give an inch with Verstappen forced wide to mount a ‘sausage ramp’ on the curve
Verstappen criticised Hamilton for not giving him enough room on the team radio before leaving his car and storming off
Hamilton emerged unscathed from his Mercedes a few minutes later with the Red Bull still resting on the front section
Hamilton took a moment to inspect the respective damage suffered by the two cars as he and Verstappen crashed out
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.
‘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.
The two wrecked cars came to rest in a haze of smoke and dust from the gravel as both drivers’ race ended prematurely
Hamilton (left) walks away from the scene of the crash as stunned spectators in the grandstand absorb what happened
