The moment Lewis Hamilton tangled with Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix will be hotly debated for several days.
The crash, which eliminated championship leader Verstappen while Hamilton went on to win the race, has significantly changed the title fight for the rest of the season.
Verstappen hit the tyre wall with an impact force of 51g, which sent him to the hospital for precautionary checks.
Race officials dealt Hamilton a 10-second time penalty for his role in causing the collision.
The Brit then completed his penalty during his pitstop before overtaking Charles Leclerc with three laps remaining to win his home race.
Verstappen later accused Hamilton of ‘disrespectful’ behaviour for celebrating the win under the contentious circumstances.
“Glad I’m OK,” Verstappen said.
“Very disappointed with being taken out like this.
“The penalty given does not help us and doesn’t do justice to the dangerous move Lewis made on track.
“Watching the celebrations while still in hospital is disrespectful and unsportsmanlike behaviour but we move on.”
Hamilton says he was never going to back out of the move on lap one.
He suggested it was a racing incident caused by neither driver giving each other room.
“I always try to be measured in how I approach, particularly with dicing with Max, he is very aggressive,” Hamilton said.
“Today, I was fully alongside him, and he didn’t let me have space.
“But regardless of whether I agree with the penalty, I take it on the chin, and I just kept working.
“There’s rarely an incident that’s 100% someone fault, it’s always a mixture because there’s two people.”
Opinions between both teams are understandably split.
Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner believes the “penalty doesn’t fit the crime.”
“He’s seen no penalty for the action that he took. It doesn’t fit with the action or the move he made.
“You look at in previous years, drivers have missed future events because of first lap incidents like that.”
Meanwhile, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff claimed it was a racing collision brewed from both drivers pushing one another to the limit.
“It’s two guys racing each other hard,” he said.
“The first half lap was already hard, Lewis backed out once, and then these two fighting with the knife between the teeth, that can have contact and that is what happened in that corner.”
Hamilton had been held winless since the Spanish Grand Prix in May.
His victory overnight slashes Verstappen’s championship lead to just eight points.
The next round of the F1 world championship is the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 30 – August 1.
Maybe if he actually wanted to make a genuine overtake, he should have been using the part of the track near the apex instead of the part that Verstappen was on….get real. The stewards got it right, apart from not taking him from the results altogether. A 10 second penalty did not help Verstappen.
Looking at the footage I think the overhead shot tells it all, Lewis was nowhere near the apex of the corner which would have been the preferred and fastest line through that corner, Copse i think it was. So clearly his intention was not to take the fastest line but to shut Max out. Given the speed of that corner that is a very dangerous and reckless attitude to take, I personally believe the penalty should have been a black flag or alternatively strip him of any points gained from that race. Yes we want drivers to race each other but with some consideration for each others well being which in this case Lewis opted not to. I also feel Toto should have withdrawn Lewis from the race given the outcome. I know stewards impose penalties on the actual incident and not the outcome which often means the penalty does not fit the crime!!