“I Just Tried to Avoid the Contact”: Lewis Hamilton Responds to Max Verstappen’s Complaints

Tanish Chachra | 05/04/2023
"I Just Tried to Avoid the Contact": Lewis Hamilton Responds to Max Verstappen's Complaints

Max Verstappen didn’t appear to be happy with Lewis Hamilton on his team radio. The Dutch race driver complained to Red Bull that his arch-rival tried to push him out at turn 3 while arguing he was ahead at the apex.

Verstappen tried to get his team to penalize Hamilton for the alleged aggressive attack. However, the FIA saw no problem and got ahead with the race.

The Red Bull driver remained behind the Mercedes duo for the first part of the race. However, soon into the battle, he just flew by Hamilton in the latest added DRS zone, with the latter having no chance to defend his lead. Thus, whatever might have happened with Verstappen earlier in the race, mattered no more.

Lewis Hamilton argues back to Max Verstappen

Despite Verstappen having no complaints once everything went in his favor, the media still asked Hamilton about the little skirmish. The seven-time-world champion argues that his attack was well within the rules.

“From my side, I just tried to avoid the contact,” he said, following the race. “It is quite clear in the rules what you are allowed to do now on the outside but clearly, it is not followed.”

Hamilton even dismisses the accusation that he forced Verstappen out of the track. He claims that Verstappen braked earlier, opposite to what the 103 race winner did, and the latter had a slight lead on the inside. In the end, he contended since nobody touched anyone, the whole issue could be ignored by saying it was racing.

The team bosses pitch their takes

Toto Wolff was entirely defensive of his driver. According to the Mercedes team principal Hamilton didn’t do anything wrong with his attack on the two-time world champion and was well within the rules.

Meanwhile, Christian Horner didn’t echo Verstappen’s claim. In fact, he called it a “mistake” by the Mercedes driver looking at the effect it made on Hamilton’s race result.

The 49-year-old thinks Hamilton went too aggressive on his tires initially. Therefore, it allowed Verstappen, who came with a suited setup to Albert Park, to seamlessly overtake Hamilton for the race lead later in the race.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Mercedes Red Bull

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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