Hamilton secured a rather straight forward win in France, as the drivers behind him were involved in an ugly accident on Turn 1. The crash opened up a significant gap between Hamilton and those trailing him.
Verstappen benefitted largely from the Bottas-Vettel crash, slotting in right behind Hamilton and keeping track position all through the race to finish 2nd.
A lot of the post race discussion was around the Bottas-Vettel crash and how the 5 second penalty was a little too lenient.
Verstappen and Hamilton got a chance to discuss the incident between Bottas and Vettel after the race while they were on their way back from the track.
Here’s their entire conversation
Hamilton: Vettel did well to come back to.
Verstappen : I mean he stopped, put softs on and that tyre is actually quite good so he could run for a long time.
Hamilton: It’s too hard a soft tyre.
Verstappen: They should call it the hards. So that made it quite easy. But it was a shame for Valtteri because it’s not really his fault.
Hamilton: A five second penalty for taking someone out in turn one.
Verstappen: Yeah
The duo hadn’t watched the incident between Bottas and Verstappen during this conversation as it took place before they reached the cool down room.
Right after Hamilton watched the incident on screen, he gasped as to how could that be just a 5 second penalty. For Hamilton, if a driver takes out another driver during a race, he shouldn’t be allowed to finish above the driver that he took out.
