For much of Friday and Saturday, the chief talking points around the British Grand Prix centred around what exactly to call the new Saturday qualifying race – sorry, F1 Sprint – and whether credit for pole position should go to the winner of that event or the fastest driver in regular qualifying on Friday.
And then, of course, Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton made contact while battling for the lead at Copse on the first lap of the race, pitching the Red Bull driver into a terrifying high-speed crash and sparking a fast-escalating war of words.
Here are the key talking points from a controversial Silverstone weekend.
Collision ramps up title battle tension
Verstappen and reigning champion Hamilton have been battling each other all season and, given that both are determined, uncompromising racers, it has always felt like it could lead to an on-track clash.
Having won the qualifying race – sorry, F1 Sprint – Verstappen started the race from pole, but Mercedes-AMG racer Hamilton pushed him hard for the first half of the opening lap. Verstappen managed to resist several of Hamilton’s charges, but the Brit got a run and had the inside line heading into the ultra-quick Copse corner.
The resulting clash pitched Verstappen off the track at high speed and into the barriers. He was taken to hospital but thankfully was unhurt. Hamilton, meanwhile, dropped behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and picked up damage to his car, which the team could fix during the following red-flag period. Hamilton was later given a 10sec time penalty, served during his pit stop, for the clash.
You’ve probably already got your own – possibly strong – views on the crash and, frankly, there’s already about as much amateur analysis on the footage online as there is of the Zapruder film. Certainly, you can make arguments both ways, so feel free to argue about it as much as you like.
Certainly, Hamilton tried a bold move at a corner where overtaking is extremely difficult. But you also can’t isolate what happened in that singular corner from Verstappen’s incredibly aggressive defence over the first half-lap of the race.
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I think this analysis is spot on, and (so far) the comments here as well. Verstappen has an extremely aggressive driving style, daring his opponents to back off or crash. Lewis is a fast but very clean driver who has been involved in remarkably few crashes during his career. The 10 second penalty was, I suppose, understandable but he deserved no more than that. Red Bull chucked their toys out the pram and had a tantrum!
Max's driving style of letting it be up to the other drivers to decide if there's an accident or not caught up with him. He's been threatening to put someone in the hospital for a long time with that, and thankfully it was himself and not another driver. I don't wish harm on anyone, but Max has been involved in too many incidents.
And then for Horner to complain about how much it will now cost to repair the car after Max has destroyed so many other competitor's cars is laughable!
If that overtake was worth a 10 second penalty the Moto GP boys would never finish a race!