Lewis Hamilton turned on his ‘crazy’ title rival Max Verstappen on Sunday night, accusing him of dirty tricks in a toxic Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Seven-time World Champion won the race after surviving a scary accident in which he crashed into his champion rival. Both are level on points as they head into Sunday’s last race in Abu Dhabi.
On lap 37 of the night-race, Verstappen received an order to return Hamilton first place. He apparently brake-tested his opponent, and he slowed down. Verstappen, however, clipped Hamilton’s rear.
Max Verstappen (front), and Lewis Hamilton (back), collided during Sunday’s race
After Verstappen had been ordered to take the lead, Hamilton was forced to catch Verstappen’s back.
Hamilton said: ‘We all know how to race. There’s only one of us who doesn’t.
‘I didn’t get the information (that Verstappen had been told to cede position), so it was very confusing. He suddenly started moving and backing up. I was like, “Is he playing some sort of crazy tactic?”
‘All of a sudden messages started to come through, but he hit the brakes so hard l nearly went up the back of him.
‘For him, it didn’t matter if we both didn’t finish because he was leading by eight points at the start.
‘It will be interesting to see what happens…’
Hamilton (left), sustained injury to his front right wing from the collision
They were still trying to decide at midnight in Jeddah.
It was finally announced that Verstappen had been given a 10-second penalty because of the collision. But, since he was 16 seconds faster than Valtteri Bottas at checkered flag, the penalties did not affect the awarding points.
Hamilton added: ‘I needed to keep my cool. I’ve raced a lot of drivers in my years and a lot of different characters, and there are a lot over the limit for whom rules don’t apply.
‘Today, I just tried to do my talking on the track.’
Martin Brundle, commentating on Sky, said: ‘It’s been a dirty race in terms of tactics. Max brake-tested Max. This was especially naughty.
‘Max Verstappen has got to look at his driving standards. There’s aggressive, determined, feisty racing, and then there’s what we saw this evening, which was too much.’
Hamilton claimed that Verstappen’s slowdown in the post-race interview was beyond his comprehension.
Hamilton was able to beat Verstappen in the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: ‘I don’t think this is done yet. Max’s telemetry data shows that Max is slowing, then accelerating again and then slowing back down.
‘Lewis didn’t know Verstappen had been told to let him past, and I think that was the wrong sequence of messages that came through there.
‘The driving needs to be assessed. It’s hard, very hard, maybe over the line hard.
‘We just want to have a clean championship, may the best man win and if it’s Max at the end then I have peace with that. It just needs to be fair.’
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner countered: ‘We feel hard done by with the five-second penalty (for an early restart incident). As for where Lewis has driven up the back of Max, he was trying to give the place up.’
After witnessing the incident on lap 37 during the Jeddah race, Toto Wolff was furious.
After witnessing Hamilton and Verstappen collide, Wolff furiosously threw the headset.
Christian Horner, Red Bull’s chief executive, felt Verstappen’s five second penalty earlier was too harsh
Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, stood up for Verstappen, saying: ‘It is the responsibility of the driver who is letting the other past to do it as safely as possible. l can’t really see what Max did wrong. He may have slowed down abruptly, but I think Lewis was nervous about going alongside him.’
Hamilton’s team-mate Bottas, who snatched third in the final few metres, said: ‘It was not easy and the red flags made it tricky. The team just continued pushing until I was third on the last straight.
‘It’s a big challenge physically and mentally here. But a good grand prix and I look forward to coming here next year.’