Damon Hill: “I have never seen Lewis drive that aggressively”

© LAT Photographic for Williams F1

1996 Formula 1 champion Damon Hill chimes in on the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, and says a crash was “inevitable”.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen came together in the first lap of the British Grand Prix on the Copse corner, and while Max ended up in the barrier, Lewis managed to continue and win the race.

He did however get a 10-second penalty, and now the debate rages on over who was at fault, and whether Hamilton’s penalty was justified.

Most current and former drivers who expressed their opinion so far think it was a racing incident and neither driver should have received a penalty.

Now Damon Hill chimes in with his thoughts. While the Briton doesn’t explicitly say what his opinion is, he does say the contact was “inevitable”.

“I think it was inevitable at some point there was going to be some coming together of the two, it was so aggressive,” Hill said on the F1 Nation podcast.

“I have never seen Lewis drive that aggressively. I am racking my brains to think of a time. The only time I can come up with is Barcelona with Nico Rosberg.

“It was full-on attack mode and I do wonder whether it was something to do with what had happened the previous day during the sprint where he sort of lost pole position.”


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Damon then pointed to another occasion that could have ended the same way, the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

“I saw Lewis trying to go around the outside at Imola and it was wet, he was never going to get away with that.

“All these guys have got a perspective, they presume the other driver should give way. They have this attitude [where they think] that ‘They have to give way because I am better than he is’.

“If you get two people who think like that, you are never going to get them around the corner together.

“Actually, Lewis is very lucky he didn’t lose his front wing and get a puncture and all the rest of it, on top of his 10-second penalty which is something that has been contentious.”

Hill doesn’t really say where he leans in his opinion, but he does say the opinions from observers are divided.

“I have had more calls and contact with my racing friends and friends of mine who have got an opinion on this, I cannot find… it is 50/50 on either side at the moment.

“There is not a clear answer whether it was Lewis who got a penalty or whether Max should have got a penalty.

“They were both incredibly uncompromising and when you put two very, very uncompromising people into a 180mph corner then something is going to happen and it did,” concluded the 1996. champion.

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