Max Verstappen admitted he had a feeling he was going to make contact with Lewis Hamilton if he tried to overtake when he did in the Brazilian Grand Prix – but attempted it anyway.
The start of the race in Sao Paulo had already seen a crash, as the race was neutralised on the first lap when Daniel Ricciardo took out Kevin Magnussen. Shortly after the safety car restart, it was the turn of the 2021 title chasers to make contact.
It happened in the Senna Esses section of the track. Hamilton was ahead but left a small gap on the inside of a right-hander – Verstappen took that as invitation to stick the nose of his car on the inside, resulting in contact between the two.
Both were able to carry on, but Hamilton was sent off track. Verstappen came off worse, picking up severe damage to his front wing which warranted a replacement, while he also received a five-second time penalty for the stewards for being "predominantly at fault" for the collision.
Speaking after the race, the defiant Dutchman made it clear he did not regret attempting the move. "To be honest, I went around the outside, and I immediately felt he was not going to leave space," he said, adding: "I just went for it, he didn't leave me space, so I knew we were going to get together.
"It cost him the race win, for me it gave me five seconds. It wouldn't have mattered anything for my race, because we were just way too slow. But it's just a shame, I thought we could race quite well together, but clearly the intention was not there to race."
Asked for his thoughts on the incident, Hamilton simply said: "What can I say? You know how it is with Max." Instead of dwelling on that moment, the Brit wanted to celebrate the occasion, having finished second behind team-mate George Russell on a red letter day for Mercedes.
Team boss Toto Wolff had a similar view – that celebrating his team's success was more important to him in that moment than spending too much time commenting on that incident, which clearly did not disrupt the momentum of his drivers.
"I struggle to comment on the situation because it's irrelevant to me at that stage to attribute guilt or to have a judgement call here," said the Austrian. "I'd rather be happy about the win."
