Verstappen lucky: 'embarrassing that the stewards didn't have the footage'

Lewis Hamilton defeated Max Verstappen with a very strong piece of racing in Brazil. The Dutchman didn't make it easy for the Brit, however, and got in his way especially at his first attempt. Verstappen was not penalised and seems to have got away with it.

Verstappen lucky

Hamilton tried to pass on the outside in turn four, but Verstappen was having none of it. He left his RB16B in place, causing both drivers to spin out of the corner and get back on track over a patch of grass. Race control decided not to do anything about it.

According to the Dutch Ziggo team at Crashing in de keuken, Rob van Gameren, Rob Kamphues and Robert Doornbos, Verstappen was lucky he didn't get a penalty. Doornbos thought it was a nice action, but nuanced: "A titanic battle on the limit and a bit over."

FIA did not have the footage

According to Van Gameren, there was a special reason why Verstappen got away with this action. The FIA simply didn't have the footage of the moment he turned in. Van Gameren:

"The FIA does not have the onboard footage of Max of the famous moment of steering in." The camera image shoots away just at the moment when a steering movement could be observed, so the FIA could not see what was happening at that moment.

"That's where he gets away with it," Doornbos concludes. Kamphues finds it inconceivable: "We sometimes complain that we don't get the right images, but that the stewards don't have them...". " That's embarrassing," Van Gameren adds.