Max Verstappen’s recent domination came to a dramatically sudden halt at Silverstone, after crashing out of the British Grand Prix on the opening lap after colliding with Lewis Hamilton at Copse. Verstappen as a result took a precautionary trip to the local hospital.
Max Verstappen’s championship lead has been cut to just eight points after Hamilton fought back to win the British Grand Prix after being awarded a ten second time penalty.
The talking point came on the opening lap at the incredibly fast Copse corner. Up until Copse, Verstappen defended well to keep an eager Hamilton just behind, both drivers knew how important it was to lead early on. Hamilton got a brilliant drive out of Luffield and pulled a dummy on Verstappen to go up the inside of Hamilton going into Copse.
Neither driver was prepared to yield as they headed into the corner, it was at this point it all went horribly wrong, the two collided mid-corner and Hamilton caught the rear of Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing car, sending him flying into the barrier and experiencing an impact measured at 51G, terrifying numbers to try and interpret.
As a result of the crash the red flag was flown and thankfully Verstappen walked away. Since the crash Verstappen took a precautionary trip to the hospital having experienced some concussion symptoms, however all is okay and the Dutchman has since been released from hospital.
Due to being in hospital during the post-race interviews, Verstappen was unable to comment on the incident, however Team Principal Christian Horner did share his thoughts and where he believes the fault lies for the crash.
“This is an incredibly difficult way to end the British Grand Prix weekend and it goes without saying that we are all just thankful Max was able to walk away from the car, despite later being taken to hospital for precautionary checks, where he currently remains for observation. I have reviewed the footage many times and still cannot help but feel that putting a wheel up the inside at Copse, one of the fastest corners in this World Championship, was ill-judged and a huge risk by Lewis to both drivers.
“He was not significantly alongside Max as you can see from the point of contact, Lewis’ front left to Max’s right rear. The move was never on and resulted in a 51G impact for Max. We are in contact with Max and Jos and will provide an update later today. “
For Checo, it was also not an easy afternoon and after starting from the pit lane and making early progress through the field he was stuck in a mid-field DRS train creating high tyre degradation. We therefore opted to pit him towards the end of the race in order to secure fastest lap. We come away with a slim lead in both Championships and you can be sure that once we have had time to reflect on today, all this weekend will do is add fire to our Championship fight.”
“It’s a weekend to forget” – Sergio Pérez
As mentioned by Horner, it was a difficult grand prix for Sergio Pérez who started from the pit-lane. The Mexican didn’t progress as quickly up the field as he may have expected, the Red Bull driver got caught up in a DRS train and then made contact with Kimi Räikkönen.
In the end with points looking off the cards, the team pitted Pérez with only a couple laps left in order to take the extra point for fastest lap away from Hamilton. Pérez who is very disappointed with his weekend crossed the line in sixteenth.
“I’m very disappointed with my weekend and my performance. I wasn’t able to make as much progress as expected and found myself in a very difficult position with the tyres. As soon as we were in the DRS train it was impossible to overtake people. I think P7 was possible today, with a couple more laps I think I could have got Lance and Fernando but in the end for strategic reasons we decided to stop to take the fastest lap.
“It’s a weekend for us to forget and we lost a lot of ground in the Championship, we need to regroup, work hard and come back as strong as possible in Hungary. I need to re-watch the incident with Max and Lewis as I haven’t seen it, but the most important thing that Max is okay.”
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