Italian Grand Prix: Huge drama as Championship rivals Verstappen & Hamilton crash at Monza

Italian GP 2021 witnessed one of the tensing moments in the history of Formula 1 as Red Bull driver Max Verstappen crashed with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton during the main race on Sunday. Verstappen flipped up beside Hamilton as both the title rivals battled for the top position behind McLaren’s Lando Norris. As Hamilton made his way out of the pit box after a slow pit stop, he came into a wheel-to-wheel battle with Verstappen just before Turn 2 at Monza.

 As they approached the Rettifilo chicane, Verstappen was forced wide after finding no space from outside the line, which made their real wheels collide, launching Verstappen’s car over the top of Hamilton’s. The two cars eventually came to a stop in the gravel trap with the Red Bull clipped over Lewis’ Mercedes. Following the incident, the safety car was deployed immediately as both the drivers climbed out of their cars.

"So, next thing you know, he’s just on top of me": Lewis Hamilton

On the official website of Formula One, both the drivers expressed their thoughts after their crash. Verstappen, the current Championship leader, said, “We saw it was going to be tight into Turn 1 and Lewis also realized that, so after the white line, he nearly moved to the left under braking. So I already had to move onto the green side next to the track. But then nevertheless, I thought we were going to have a nice fight into Turn 1, through Turn 2. But as soon as I was next to him, he just kept on squeezing me more and more to the left. I still thought we’ll just have enough space to make it into Turn 2, but unfortunately, he ran me a bit too much out of road, so then I clipped the sausage curb and that’s why we touched”.

Meanwhile, Hamilton said, “We were obviously just ahead, we had a bit of a slow stop, came out, braking into Turn 1 I made sure I left a car’s width on the outside and I was ahead going into the corner, and next thing I know, I guess Max went over the second kerb or something like that – he obviously knew he wasn’t going to make the corner – and he drove into me. So, next thing you know, he’s just on top of me. So, definitely unfortunate and we’ll speak to the stewards after this I’m sure”. The crash eventually resulted in a McLaren 1-2 at the podium, with Valtteri Bottas finishing at P3. Verstappen teammate, Sergio Perez finished the race at P5 behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The Stewards of the race announced the crash would be investigated after the race, while both the drivers scoring zero points on Sunday. 

(Image: @F1- Twitter)