Max Verstappen was recently caught strolling down memory lane. The three-time champion was reminiscing about that “beautiful” moment when he saw the two Mercedes’ of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg take each other out at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix on the first lap of the race. 65 laps later, Verstappen won his first Grand Prix on his debut with Red Bull.
In a video that is going viral on X, Verstappen revealed, “Turn 4 was a beautiful corner that day in lap 1 when the two Mercedes cars just disappeared off the road.” However, Verstappen still had to contend with a rapid Kimi Raikkonen hunting him down. Hence, the Dutchman did admit that the last 10 laps or so of the race were pretty nervy for him.
Since both Hamilton and Rosberg committed the cardinal sin that day, Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda were furious with the duo. Coming into 2016, the relationship between the teammates was already strained. However, that lap 1 shunt was the final nail in the coffin. And since then, Hamilton and Rosberg haven’t really seen eye to eye, even to this day.
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Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were neck-and-neck in the championship. And their relationship had gotten acrimonious ever since Hamilton won back-to-back championships in 2014 and 2015.
Into turn 4 at the 2016 Spanish GP, Rosberg led the Briton. However, into the slow right-hander, the German shut the door pretty aggressively leading Hamilton onto the grass. Hamilton then lost control and rammed into the back of Rosberg, thereby taking both of them into the gravel pit and out of the race.
Since Verstappen emerged as the biggest victor, he was undoubtedly ecstatic after winning the race. He revealed to the media, “I think I showed a lot of emotion. I’ve got a bit of a cramp from all the celebrating during the in-lap. So, yeah, can’t really move a lot!”
Verstappen also revealed that no one had thought that even a prodigious talent like himself could win on his debut. “I think also GP (his race engineer) was completely shocked! I remember the radio messages, I think everybody was a bit like, ‘what just happened?'”
