Lewis Hamilton Takes Out Max Verstappen at Silverstone, Who Do You Blame?

This in turn sent Verstappen directly into the barrier, with the young Dutchman being forced to absorb as many as 51G during impact, according to team principal Christian Horner. Verstappen was quickly taken to the hospital for further checks, while his main rival managed to pull of an unlikely win, despite receiving a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.

In fact, Hamilton got past Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with just three laps to go in order to finish first, before proceeding to celebrate with his team – something neither Verstappen nor Red Bull appreciated. The former took to Twitter, using terms like “disrespectful” and “unsportsmanlike behavior” in describing Hamilton's post-race actions.

Hamilton however thinks it was all just a racing incident: “I tried to give him the space but I was quite a long way up the inside into 9 and none of us backed out and that was the end result. I dummied him, moved to the right for that gap and I was pretty far up alongside him but I then could see he wasn’t going to back out, and we went into the corner, and we collided.”

The reigning Formula 1 champion went on to say that he hopes Verstappen is OK and that he enjoys racing him - “but I will never back down from anyone and I will not be bullied into being less aggressive,” added the Mercedes driver.

Glad I’m ok. Very disappointed with being taken out like this. The penalty given does not help us and doesn’t do justice to the dangerous move Lewis made on track. Watching the celebrations while still in hospital is disrespectful and unsportsmanlike behavior but we move on pic.twitter.com/iCrgyYWYkm

— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) July 18, 2021

Afterwards, everyone and their grandmothers began chiming in regarding how blame should be distributed, with most people saying it was Hamilton’s fault. However, there are those who believe it truly was just a racing incident, which is a solid argument considering that Hamilton was indeed completely alongside Verstappen before missing the apex and lifting off the throttle, at which point the Red Bull driver was still turning into the corner, taking a massive chance at that speed.

Then there’s the fact that both drivers are locked into a battle for the title this year and it stands to reason that neither would back down in a situation such as this one.

What do you think though? Was it Max’s corner or Hamilton’s? Keep in mind you’ll have to open the first video in a separate window due to Formula 1’s strict ways of doing business online. The second video includes the full team radio conversation involving Hamilton and his race engineer.