© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Sky Sports F1 pundit Naomi Schiff says Max Verstappen was “clearly a lot more intentional about what he was doing” when he purposefully impeded Lewis Hamilton in the Austrian Grand Prix Sprint Shootout.
In the Austrian Grand Prix Sprint Shootout, during Max Verstappen’s final run in SQ1, the Dutch driver came up to the back of Lewis Hamilton’s W14, and then complained over the radio that Lewis had blocked him.
However, Verstappen went on to ruin Lewis’ final flying lap, when he moved past him and then blocked him. This caused Lewis to be eliminated in SQ1.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff later said Lewis unintentionally blocked Max because of a miscommunication with the team, while Max committed a “revenge foul”.
When the claim was put to Sky F1 pundit Naomi Schiff, she fully agreed with Wolff’s assessment, and said she was puzzled why the Dutch driver would risk a penalty by doing such a petty thing.
“It’s quite clear that that’s exactly what it was,” Schiff said.
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“You can see his frustration, from what we heard, apparently Max was saying that he didn’t think that lap he’d just completed, that he felt he was impeded by Lewis in, would have been enough to get him through, so he decided he wanted to start another lap and that’s why he impeded him in Turn 1.
“So if we choose to believe that, my concern is on the exit of Turn 1 on the run up to Turn 2, he very clearly blocks him there as well, and I don’t understand why he’s done that.
“I mean, I get the frustration, you don’t want to be impeded, but he knows just how hard they’ve been policing exactly that this season so far, and he had a lot to lose by doing that.
“Drivers sometimes, really frustrated helmets on, and they make silly decisions, but it’s just unfortunate for Lewis, because for him, it was not an intentional move from him.
“Of course he impeded Max by being there, but Max was clearly a lot more intentional about what he was doing,” she concluded.
