A new angle on the big talking point from Sunday’s Sao Paulo race, with the on-board camera from Max Verstappen’s Red Bull released
Last Updated: 16/11/21 1:16pm
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Watch the on-board footage from Max Verstappen’s car as he defends from Lewis Hamilton at the Sao Paulo GP. The stewards noted the incident, but Verstappen avoided a penalty before Hamilton won the race
The on-board footage from Max Verstappen’s car during his controversial battle for the lead in the Sao Paulo GP with Lewis Hamilton, when both cars ran off track, has been released for the first time.
Race Control ‘noted’ the incident between the title contenders but quickly ruled that no full investigation into Verstappen’s defence was warranted and so the battle continued, with Hamilton eventually overtaking 11 laps later to win the race.
Afterwards, FIA race director Michael Masi confirmed that Race Control did not have access to the forward-facing cockpit camera on Verstappen’s car at the time of their analysis of the incident.
That has since been made available, and has now been released.
Although Hamilton still ending up winning the race, Mercedes were left unhappy that Verstappen had not been penalised on a weekend when they already felt several big decisions had gone against them.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes team boss, told Sky Sports F1: “I think [if] you put the helmet on and said that that’s hard defending just to the limit. Lewis was super clever avoiding the contact, so it was great to see these two super drivers.
“But not giving it a five seconds [penalty] or so? Come on.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner saw it differently.
“It’s two guys running hard,” said Horner. “Lewis has got a run around the outside, Max has gone in deep, they’ve both gone wide.
“It would have been really unfair to penalise on that. If it was the other way around, I would have told my sporting director to have a moan about it but I wouldn’t have expected really anything from it.”
Hamilton and Verstappen: What they said about the incident
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Max Verstappen admits he didn’t have the pace to hold off Lewis Hamilton, but insists he’s not too disappointed with his second place finish
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Lewis Hamilton says he feels overwhelmed after overcoming multiple setbacks to fight back from 10th on the grid and claim a memorable victory in Brazil
More to follow…