In the first lap of the Belgian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso made contact with each other, forcing Hamilton to leave the race early.
The two drivers were fighting for third, but their cars made contact which caused Hamilton’s car to jump in the air for a brief moment. While Alonso was allowed to continue the race, Hamilton was pulled out due to damage to his car.
Over a radio message that was played on the broadcast, Alonso expressed his displeasure with Hamilton.
“What an idiot! Closing the door from the outside,” he said, via ESPN’s Nate Saunders. “We had a great start but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first.”
When speaking to the broadcast, Alonso downplayed the incident and said he credits Hamilton for taking the blame for what happened.
“I was surprised and for sure...he now saw the incident and he takes the responsibility which is obviously very nice from him,” he said. “It was a lap one incident, nothing really to say there.”
Despite the collision, Saunders reports that the incident will not be investigated further because Alonso never appeared to lose control.
However, according to Chris Medland, Hamilton was also given a warning for refusing “to visit the Event Medical Service following his crash on Lap 1 where the Medical Warning Light threshold was exceeded and only [doing] so after the Race Director informed the team that further action could be taken if he did not.”
