Friday July 30th 2021
“Dirty Hamilton integrity”
F1 mud fight goes into the next round
The mud battle in the heated world championship fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton continues. Before the Grand Prix in Hungary, the poison arrows fly between Red Bull and Mercedes. Training will be a minor matter, and Hamilton could take his 100th GP victory on Sunday.
The two arguers Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton held back on the route. The fastest time of the first training sessions in the Hungaroring heat chamber was achieved by Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes, who was razor-thin in 1: 17.012 minutes ahead of his team-mate and record world champion Hamilton (+0.027).
World Championship leader Verstappen fought a little with his car after his violent 51 g crash with Hamilton in Silverstone at temperatures around 32 degrees. The 23-year-old Dutchman finished third, almost three tenths of a second behind. The starting position before the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday (3 p.m. / Sky), the last race before the summer break, is therefore open. “I was fried today,” said Hamilton, exhausted in the face of the heat: “I lost three kilos today between workouts.”
In the paddock, however, the accident between the two World Cup rivals in Great Britain was still the dominant issue at the beginning of the race weekend. Red Bull had recently accused Hamilton of negligence several times because of his attempted overtaking maneuver and even demanded a race suspension. After the world federation FIA rejected the protest on Thursday evening, Mercedes shot more arrows in the direction of Red Bull shortly thereafter.
One hope, wrote the world championship team, that this is now the “end for the attempts of the management of Red Bull Racing to tarnish the good reputation and the sporting integrity of Lewis Hamilton”. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner did not want to leave this accusation. “I was a little surprised at the comments from Mercedes,” said Horner. The statement was a little “antagonistic”, but he doesn’t see it that closely.
Rather, Horner wanted to make it clear that the protest was “absolutely not a personal attack” against Hamilton. “If another driver had been affected, we would have acted the same way,” stressed Horner. Then the Englishman tried to finally close the case. “The chapter is now closed, the stewards have made their decision,” he said. Meanwhile, Mercedes sports director Toto Wolff had the feeling that after the crash there was a lack of respect, Red Bull reacted hysterically and a line had been crossed.
“If you call a seven-time world champion an amateur, that’s not right,” said Wolff at Sky. Horner had described Hamilton’s action as an “amateurish mistake”. There has not yet been a discussion between the two bosses, and the waves have not smoothed out between the two rivals Verstappen and Hamilton.
In the World Cup, Verstappen’s lead over record champion Hamilton is only eight points. For the seven-time world champion Hamilton, it is about his ninth victory on the Hungaroring on Sunday, which would set the sole record for most successes on one track. At the same time, Hamilton could break the historic sound barrier of 100 victories in the premier class around 20 kilometers from the gates of Budapest. Above all, Max Verstappen will have something against it.
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