Hamilton and Nico Rosberg came together at Turn 3 when the Briton fought to regain the lead after initially losing it at the start.
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Hamilton, who apologised to his team but refused to accept blame for the crash, attempted to pass Rosberg on the exit of turn three.
Fighting for position on the opening lap of Sunday’s grand prix, Hamilton was forced onto the grass as he tried to slide up the inside of Rosberg’s W07. Reflecting on the incident, Rosberg said he had decided not to give any space to Hamilton, but was very surprised to see his team-mate go for the gap anyway, Sport24 reported.
When asked about his thoughts on that subject, Rosberg said: “You say Toto says he’s happy to let us race but I don’t think happy is the right word”.
Max Verstappen became the youngest Formula One victor.
The incident resulted in a battle for victory between Red Bull and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen going on to become the youngest driver in F1 history to win a race just 10 days after his promotion from Toro Rosso to the senior team. “I’m saying that I will go with the verdict of the stewards”.
“We can’t expect them to react any differently, but I am 100 per cent sure that it is not going to influence their relationship in a negative way going forward”.
Verstappen, 18, drove like a veteran in fending off a late challenge by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who not long ago raced against Verstappen’s father, former Benetton and Arrows driver Jos Verstappen.
Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided at Turn 4 in Spain, taking both Mercedes cars out of the race.
Verstappen, heralded as the sport’s hottest property, proved he has everything required to be a future world champion, but owed some of his good fortune also to Red Bull’s decision to put him on a three-stop strategy while his senior team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was on a two-stop plan.
Rosberg had made the better start and swept around the outside of Hamilton into Turn One to take the lead of the race.
While Niki Lauda, Mercedes’ non-executive chairman, was quick to point the finger at Hamilton, the paddock was divided as to who was at fault. “Lewis was too aggressive”.
The Briton said later that the German, who was blamed by the team, had declared he had done it on objective. “It’s so hard to really attribute percentages of blame”.
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“What I said to the two of them is that fundamentally they are sitting in the cars”. Both of them are upset about the situation.
