Max Verstappen dismisses Lewis Hamilton battle parallels to Silverstone clash

São Paulo Grand Prix

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Verstappen dismisses Hamilton battle parallels to Silverstone clash

The Dutchman insisted the batte in Brazil was "not the same"

Ewan Gale

Wednesday 17 November 2021 08:00

Max Verstappen has dismissed parallels that have been drawn between the incident between the Dutchman and Lewis Hamilton in Brazil and the collision between the pair at Silverstone.

Hamilton tried to make a move on his F1 championship rival around the outside at turn four on lap 48 of the São Paulo Grand Prix but was forced wide as Verstappen also failed to make the corner.

Mercedes and Hamilton were left scratching their heads as to why the incident wasn't investigated, with the seven-time champion's response to the news of "of course not" over team radio delivered with a sarcastic tone.

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When put to Verstappen the incident was 'very similar' to the battle that saw the pair collide dramatically on the first lap of the British Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver dismissed the theory insisting: "I don’t think it’s the same, so I don’t know what [it] is referring to.

"It’s a completely different corner as well, so yeah, there’s not much more to comment, it’s not the same."

Recollecting the battle, Verstappen suggested tyre degradation issues caused his wide moment.

"We both, of course, tried to be ahead into the corner and so I braked a bit later to try and keep the position.

"The tyres were already a bit worn so I was really on the edge of grip so that’s why I think I was already not fully on the apex so then it’s a safer way of just running a bit wide there.

"So in a way, I was of course happy that the stewards decided that we could just keep on racing because I think the racing, in general, was really good."

The onboard from the Red Bull was released on Tuesday [November 16] with Mercedes filing a right to review soon after.