Are Ferrari intentionally hitting Mercedes?

French Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel hits Valtteri Bottas on lap one. British Grand Prix: Kimi Raikkonen hits Lewis Hamilton on lap one. Spot a trend? Mercedes think so…

For the second time in three races, a Ferrari driver has collided with a Mercedes driver on the opening lap of the Grand Prix. In France, Vettel managed to recover to finish ahead of Bottas, but today at Silverstone Hamilton managed to recover to finish second in his home race.

This has led Hamilton and Toto Wolff to suggest that Ferrari could be looking to affect Mercedes’ rhythm with crashes on the first lap.

In the post-race press conference, Hamilton seemed to allude to this. He said: “All l would say is that it’s two races in which a Ferrari has taken out a Mercedes. Valtteri and I have both lost out in those situations.”

Vettel received a five second penalty for his role in the Paul Ricard crash, with Raikkonen accepted a 10 second penalty for spinning Hamilton today at Silverstone.

Toto Wolff was asked about the reoccurrence of Ferrari hits Mercedes and revealed that there had been talk in the Mercedes camp that there were some foul tactics occurring from Ferrari.

Toto Wolff told reporters: “It was unfortunate, it was a racing incident with Raikkonen. Le Castellet was the first time we got taken out and this is the second – it’s a lot of constructor points.

“To put it in James Allison’s words: This is either deliberate or incompetence. It leaves us with a judgement.

“I am not happy. We had a difficult weekend, qualifying on pole and then getting take out on lap one, it puts you on the back foot.”