Verstappen blames Hamilton for scary Turn 1 crash

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen has expressed his disappointment after a race-diciding incident with seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton and Verstappen was locked in a fight for third place before the second pit stop, but that battle ended early when Mercedes called the Briton in for a tyre change.

However, the pair met again in the closing stages of the race when Verstappen rapidly closed in on Hamilton. With eight laps left, Verstappen attacked Hamilton at Turn 1, making a dive from a long way back.

The Dutchman locked up both front wheels and with Hamilton having turned in, Verstappen slid straight on and hit Hamilton's right-front wheel.

The reigning champion went up in the air and off. He was able to continue, but dropped behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, and finished down in P5.

The Dutchman recalled his incident with the McLaren of Lando Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix where he was penalized for the clash. The Red Bull man blamed Hamilton for moving under braking during their long on-track battle.

"I got a lot of shit thrown at me in Austria with people saying moving under braking, blah blah blah," he said. I am positioning my car on the initial movement and then I keep it straight.

"Today, under braking he just kept turning to the right and that is why I also locked up because I was going for the move, but I saw the car on the outside kept coming at me.

“Otherwise, we would've already crashed before. I had to stop the car so that is why I locked up."

The Dutch driver was left frustrated at the Hungarian Grand Prix, claiming that his RB20 simply lacked pace compared to McLaren in the hot race of Mogyoród.

"We didn't have the pace to fight McLaren today but then I think we could have still had a P3," he reflected.

The reigning champion blamed his team for not giving him the optimal strategy at the Budapest F1 race. Having failed to keep up with the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the Dutchman was put on an offset strategy - similar to the Ferraris -, which put him “on the backfoot.”

"The wrong strategy calls put me on the backfoot where I constantly had to fight people, trying to overtake, and it didn't work today.

"The track is really hot and as soon as you get close to cars the tyres overheat and basically all of the advantage that you have with the tyres is not working anymore,” noted the Dutchman.