Formula 1 Belgian GP

Hamilton will speak to FIA officials over Verstappen crash partial blame

Mercedes racer reacts to wording in Budapest stewards’ decision that he “could have done more” to prevent late-race Hungarian GP crash with Verstappen

Alex Kalinauckas

Published: Jul 26, 2024, 11:15 AM

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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, collide

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Lewis Hamilton will speak with FIA officials after the Hungarian Grand Prix stewards declared he "could have done more to avoid" his crash with Max Verstappen.

The stewards for last weekend's event in Budapest deemed the late-race incident between the pair to be worthy of no further action after Verstappen was launched skywards and lost a place to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc behind as he rejoined the track at the Hungaroring's first corner.

The stewards declared the incident warranted no further action after speaking to both drivers post-race and checking the telemetry data on their cars.

While they dismissed Verstappen's insistence "to be a typical case of 'changing direction under braking'", also stated Hamilton "could have done more to avoid the collision".

"Accordingly, we determine that no driver was predominantly to blame," read the FIA document concerning the matter, released last Sunday night.

Now F1 has reconvened at Spa for this weekend's Belgian GP, when asked if he was surprised by this statement, Hamilton replied: "Yes, very much so. I was really surprised by it.

"Already I was very relaxed about the situation, saying, 'look, it's just a racing incident, let's just move on'.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG

Photo by: Erik Junius

"But considering one car was in control and one car was not in control at the time – [because] obviously when all the wheels are locked, you're not in control.

"And if you look at the replay, at the end of the whole move I'm very far from the apex. So, I've left, there's a lot of room on the right-hand side. So, I really was very surprised.

"I don't know who typed it up, but probably, yeah that will be a question when I speak to them at some stage."

Hamilton and Verstappen were filmed shaking hands in the post-race media pen in Hungary, where they vowed to discuss the incident, with the Mercedes driver saying his decision to interrupt an interview his Red Bull rival was conducting was to "break the ice" as he walked by.

Verstappen vaguely said at Spa on Thursday that "we explained our vision and after that we went home", but Hamilton then claimed, "no, we didn't talk afterwards".

"I mean, we went to the stewards and that's it," the seven-time world champion added. "But yeah, we've not had [a] talk. I don't know if we will. If we get time, maybe we'll talk on the [drivers'] parade this weekend – maybe.

"I've not felt like there's necessarily a need to, but it might be something he wants to say. But we didn't get the time to do it [yet]."

The Hungary crash was the latest in a lengthy list of crashes between Verstappen and Hamilton going back to the start of their bitter 2021 title battle.

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