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'If Verstappen doesn't do anything about this, I fear more incidents'

'If Verstappen doesn't do anything about this, I fear more incidents'

21-07-2021 09:28 Last update: 11:02
54 Comments

GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton has sent a clear message: To here and no further. Time after time he withdrew from a duel with Max Verstappen to prevent worse, but in England, he did not. According to Joe Saward, the ball is now in Verstappen's court.

Hamilton not only guilty

Hamilton and Verstappen have had several battles on track this season, and often it was Verstappen who managed to win. The Dutchman was aggressive at the start in Imola and Barcelona, but also managed to wriggle past him in France. Whereas Hamilton would sometimes give up and try to keep the car in one piece, that wasn't the case this time.

The result is known by now, but Saward also points to the last sentence in the message from the stewards. It says: ''Car 44 is judged predominantly at fault''. ''The last phrase is significant. The stewards clearly felt that Lewis should take most of the blame, but the word “predominantly” indicates that there was also some fault involved with Verstappen,'' Saward reveals on his own blog.

Ball is in Verstappen's court

''So, in effect, the stewards were saying that both drivers had some responsibility in the crash. I’d call that a racing incident. You can argue as much as you like about it but it’s irrelevant. Max paid the price for his aggressivity. The key question beyond all the yapping and griping is whether Max will do the same again if the circumstances occur, or whether he will have learned that Lewis is not going to be shoved out of the way?''

''A line was drawn in the sand if you like. If Max does not take that on board, I fear we will see some more incidents this year because Hamilton is still a lion by nature and cuffing troublesome cubs only works so many times before a bite is required to get the message across'', concludes the experienced Formula One journalist.