All that remains of Max Verstappen's Red Bull after his 280km/h crash. Photos / Supplied
Don Kennedy on Formula One
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has called Lewis Hamilton's eighth British Grand Prix win a "hollow victory" after he witnessed Hamilton punting his driver and world championship leader Max Verstappen off the track after a collision between the two at Copse, arguably the fastest corner in F1, on the opening lap.
Verstappen had started the race from pole position after wining the sprint qualifying the day before, even though Hamilton had started from pole for that event, which strangely the F1A refuses to call a race even though it clearly was and is. In the real race, Verstappen and Hamilton fought almost side by side for several corners before approaching the Copse corner about 270km/h.
Hamilton got a run on Verstappen who initially moved to the right to cover him off, but then gave him room.
As he turned into the right-handed corner, he presumably expected Hamilton to lift and yield, but Hamilton had other ideas, later claiming it was his corner because he was ahead, and Verstappen didn't give him enough room. There was contact between the left front wheel of Hamilton's Mercedes with the right rear on Verstappen's Red Bull.
The result was Verstappen spinning off into the barrier with a 51G impact, winding himself and writing off his car. Hamilton was able to carry serenely on, albeit behind Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari who had taken advantage of the skirmish to sneak into the lead before the race was red-flagged to retrieve Verstappen's stricken car. When racing resumed, with Mercedes able to replace Hamilton's front wing, it was announced Hamilton would have to serve a 10-second penalty. Game over it would seem.
But few really believed a 10-second penalty would stop Hamilton, and so it proved. He was able to overtake Leclerc with three laps to go and win, to the delight of the mainly pro-Hamilton crowd of 140,000, who might have collectively said: "Covid-19 pandemic? What's that?"
Britain may have turned its back on coronavirus even though there were 48,000 new cases and 25 deaths the day after they were probably still celebrating Hamilton's 99th F1 victory. The war on coronavirus may ultimately be won by a dangerous strategy, but for F1 fans, an all-out war between the two top contenders for this year's championship has undoubtedly now broken out.
Horner was barely able to contain his anger during the race as he immediately contacted FIA race director Michael Masi to inquire what they were going to do about Hamilton's actions in punting his driver off.
"It shouldn't be like that, to be honest with you," Horner told Sky F1. "Max has incurred a 51G accident. Lewis Hamilton is an eight-time world champion and he shouldn't be making manoeuvres like that," Horner said, inadvertently crediting Hamilton with eight titles, which it may well be now.
"He's put a driver ... thank goodness the biggest result for us is he was uninjured. He's had to go to hospital for precautionary checks after a 51G accident, so I hope Lewis is very happy with himself," Horner sarcastically added.
"He stuck a wheel up the inside in a corner that you just know you don't do that. You just don't stick a wheel up the inside at Copse in that corner in that circumstance. He was nowhere near ahead, it was contact left front to right rear and the speed they're travelling at, it's one of the fastest corners in the championship. "
"Lewis has more than enough experience to know that is unacceptable. I'm just very disappointed that a driver of his calibre should make such a move as that. It's dangerous, it looked desperate and he's put a competitor, thank goodness uninjured, in hospital getting himself checked out. "
"I don't care what Lewis says, have a look on your own analysis, draw your own comparison. For me, that's a hollow victory."
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko went further, claiming Hamilton should have been suspended, while Max's father, Jos, says Hamilton should have been disqualified.
The stewards agreed Hamilton was at fault, but a 10-second time penalty for the fastest car on the track is like a slap with a wet traffic ticket. Of course, Hamilton was immediately in defensive mode after the race, deciding the best form of defence is to attack Verstappen as being "too aggressive".
"What a rollercoaster of emotions," he told Sky F1. "A lot of anger after the shunt with Max and I just had to bury it and progress forward."
"You just don't feel he needs to be as aggressive as he is. We're going down to Turn 6 and he's bumping wheels with me. I tried to give him space, but I was quite a long way to the inside into Turn 9, none of us backed out and that was the end result."
"I took the penalty of course, and it's never one person's fault, its always a balance of the two. I would never back down from anyone. I will not be bullied into being less aggressive," Hamilton added, contradicting his statement that Verstappen was the aggressive one.
When Hamilton was informed on the team radio of his penalty, he made no comment, which tellingly suggests he knew it was coming and he deserved it.
That also leaves open the question whether he deliberately took Verstappen out, just as Ayrton Senna did to Alain Prost at Suzuka, Japan for the Japanese GP, to ensure he won the world championship.
Similarly, Michael Schumacher deliberately steered into Damon Hill at Adelaide in 1994 to win his first championship. In Spain in 2016, Hamilton tried to dive down the inside of teammate Nico Rosberg, and the latter covered the move, the two of them careering off into the kitty litter, race over.
Rosberg refused to be intimidated by Hamilton and follow team orders, and that is why he beat him to the championship in 2016. Valtteri Bottas on the other hand pulled over obediently to let Hamilton through in this race under team orders, no doubt hoping that Mercedes will hesitate in signing George Russell for next year.
Hamilton may be a great champion, but is it his ambition to win every race no matter what the cost? Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle says Red Bull "feel it was a professional foul, they feel Hamilton did that on purpose, which I don't subscribe to. I think Lewis just decided he was going to stop yielding to Max's aggression".
Verstappen was still at the hospital having a check-up when he saw Hamilton celebrating his victory, and he was not impressed.
"First of all, I am glad I'm okay. It was quite an impact at 51G, but feeling better," he wrote on Instagram.
"Obviously very disappointed with being taken out like this. The penalty given does not help us in any way and doesn't do justice to the dangerous move Lewis made on track."
"Watching the celebrations after the race while still in hospital is disrespectful and unsportsmanlike behaviour but we move on."
The move Hamilton put on Leclerc at Copse to take the lead was almost a carbon copy of his move on Verstappen. The difference was Hamilton was much closer to the apex of the corner, while Leclerc admitted he went wide to avoid a collision with Hamilton.
"Honestly yes, I saw a bit of a remake of the first lap, that I was the first viewer behind those two," he told Sky F1. "I didn't want to take risks because we are not fighting obviously against Lewis for the championship."
It was clear from Jenson Button's comments as a Sky F1 presenter that he felt Hamilton should have backed out of the corner when trying to overtake Verstappen, because he couldn't have made the corner on that angle. Ex-F1 driver David Coulthard also thought Hamilton should have yielded.
"We know that's not really a corner where you are going to overtake unless you've absolutely got it down the inside," he said. "Lewis knows up against Max Verstappen, you have to leave your car there and see what happens. This is a battle for the ages, this is Senna against Prost, Mansell against Piquet, it was always going to happen. Thankfully when it has, nobody has been injured."
Mark Webber, who had clashes with Sebastian Vettel when paired with him at Red Bull, noted there were not too many occasions when Hamilton has been involved in controversy.
"Yes, with Nico Rosberg, but this guy. I don't think he will be proud of that move, he won't be happy with it. It was a tremendously optimistic location to pull a move off like that. A bit clumsy from Lewis."
It was clumsy, desperate for sure and definitely ambitious. But this was Silverstone, Hamilton's home race before a crowd of 140,000 and Tom "Mission: Impossible" Cruise in his pit garage cheering him on. He wanted to win badly for himself and the fans, and that mission became possible with Verstappen out of the way. And he looked happy enough when interviewed afterwards, whilst admitting he will never back down.
He has reduced Verstappen's championship lead, to just eight points. Perhaps the latter will remind Hamilton when he sees him in Hungary in two weeks that white Dutch lives matter too.