F1 News
Hamilton: 'Wanted to overtake Verstappen in Copse during the sprintrace'
- GPblog.com
In the coming months there will be a lot of talk about the British Grand Prix. The point where Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen properly touched for the first time on the track, resulting in a hard crash for the Dutchman. Hamilton won the race, but could also count on a lot of criticism.
A day earlier, during the sprint race, the drivers were already close to each other. Verstappen then finally pulled the longest straw. Hamilton explains in the FIA press conference Hamilton explains how he experienced the first lap on Sunday. " Obviously got a good start and I was chasing down Max similar to yesterday. Obviously I was alongside him into six but I had to concede and I got a great tow down to Turn 9."
Lessons learned from sprint race
Heading towards Copse Corner, however, the Briton had plenty of slipstream, just like on Saturday, which allowed him to still try. "Yesterday (Saturday) I went down the left-hand side and I really regretted not going for the gap that was down the right-hand side and so I dummied him, moved to the left and then moved to the right for that gap."
In the end, Hamilton received a ten-second penalty, although he himself insisted he was not the culprit in the accident. "Of course, that’s never the way I ever want to win a race or just in general to race but these things do happen. I just hope he’s OK and look forward to many more races," Hamilton concluded.