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Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t “always mind being the one” to back out of a fight with Max Verstappen, but he says Max is driving “over the limit”.
After being involved in several close situations with Max Verstappen at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton says the Dutch driver is driving “over the limit”.
“He is over the limit for sure,” the Briton told Sky Sports F1.
“I’ve avoided collisions on so many occasions with the guy and I don’t always mind being the one that does that. Because you live to fight another day, which I obviously did.
“I’ve raced a lot of drivers over the last 28 years, I’ve come across a lot of different characters. There’s a few at the top, which are over the limit.
“Rules kinda don’t apply or [they] don’t think of the rules but, today, I just tried to do my talking on the track.”
Hamilton then explained how he believes Verstappen brake-tested him, while giving him back the position, which ended in a collision between the two.
“There were just so many different, crazy curveballs that were sent,” Lewis said.
“And then he obviously brake-tested to try and get the DRS again into the last corner, to overtake me again back into Turn 1 so there was a commotion. I thought that I lost my wing!”
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Lewis further explained the incident to Dutch broadcaster Ziggo Sport.
“From in the cockpit, all of a sudden he suddenly slowed down at high speed, a quick rate. But, he was slowing down and then moving kind of left and right and I didn’t understand what was going on.
“I hadn’t had the information that he was letting me by that point and, so, it was very confusing.”
Verstappen’s intention was to let Lewis by and then immediately pick up a DRS to overtake him again, which is exactly what he did later in the race. The Briton explained he was handed a 20-second penalty for doing the same thing back in 2008.
“If you remember 2008, I overtook Kimi at the last corner at Spa and off the track, and I had to let him past and overtook him again.
“I won the race, but they gave me a 20-second penalty for that because they said it wasn’t sufficient.
“But, anyways, Max is obviously trying to slow down in that last corner and get the DRS before that line.
“But the thing is the dangerous part was when he hit the brake really hard. And I was like ‘Oh, shoot’. I mean, I hit him.
“There were so many incidents in that race, it was difficult to keep the car clean and stay out of trouble,” Hamilton concluded.
