In the year After Max Verstappen’s escalating series of races, incidents and collisions in the bitter championship battle in 2021, Lewis Hamilton decided he needed to be tougher with his rival.
“I will be a more aggressive driver this year,” the Mercedes driver said ahead of the 2022 season. “You’ll see.”
Until last weekend we had little chance to see if this was true or not. Mercedes did not have enough competition for Hamilton as last year as they regularly battled Verstappen for victory.
But that started to change in the second half of the season. Finally, in Brazil, the two hit the same tarmac again in earnest, and once more contact was made. Has the recent spat between their eight-year rivalry shown that Hamilton has made good on his promise to fight Verstappen?
2018 Bahrain Grand Prix
The pair had a few run-ins before they collided for the first time. At Suzuka in 2016, Verstappen made a strong defensive move as he battled Hamilton for second place. The following year in Malaysia, Hamilton did not battle with Verstappen as he secured crucial points for his fourth World Championship title.
But in the second race of 2018, the Bahrain Grand Prix was linked. Hamilton was ninth on the grid after a gearbox change penalty, with Verstappen 15th after crashing in qualifying. By the end of the lap, Verstappen was in Hamilton’s lap as they headed into turn one and moved to pass him on the inside.
Verstappen didn’t completely overtake Hamilton before the corner, but used the full width of the track on the exit, giving Hamilton the option of going off or out of the circuit. Hamilton pulled back, but tagged Verstappen’s rear left tire, putting Verstappen out of the race.
The stewards did not give any penalty, which did not impress Verstappen. “He drove into my left rear, gave me a hole and destroyed the differential,” he complained.
Hamilton, who finished third, said he had no intention of clashing with Verstappen. “I just backed up because I knew he was going to try to run me over,” he said. “But then he just kept going. He didn’t have to go to the end of the track.”
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2019 Monaco Grand Prix
Overtaking in Monaco is almost impossible, but that hasn’t deterred him from trying to dislodge Hamilton from the lead in 2019. At the Nouvelle chicane, he dived onto the inside lane, nudged Hamilton’s left-rear tire and took the pair into the race. While Hamilton won, Verstappen fell from second to fourth in the final standings due to a five-second time penalty for an incident on pit road earlier in the race.
Verstappen said the penalty “fired me”. “As soon as I heard the penalty, I was pushing Lewis hard.”
He added: “There was no one to blame, and we were not harmed.”
2019 Mexican Grand Prix
In Hungary that year, Hamilton beat Verstappen with the help of the new tires.
“The second I came in I was like, ‘OK, this whole battle we’ve been talking about me and Max, we’re going to do that today,'” Hamilton said. “And it was really cool.”
However, he once again admitted that he has to play it safe in the championship situation. “He put the car in some good places, today I gave him space and more, but it’s a little bit different from a mentality point of view,” he said. “If we were fighting on the same points, maybe it would have been more aggressive, but there was no need today.”
These words were indeed prophetic.
By the time the field reached Mexico, Hamilton was confident of the title and fully into points-gathering mode. A first lap clash with Verstappen was not what he wanted.
The situation wasn’t quite the same as in Bahrain a year ago, when Verstappen took the inside of a tight right-hander leading to the left. On this occasion, the Red Bull driver got a bit out of shape, nudging Hamilton, unsettling the Mercedes and causing a messy collision between the pair.
However, speaking about the incident, Hamilton made it clear that he now sees Verstappen as a driver who needs special treatment.
“Every driver is a little different,” he said. “Some are smart. Some are very smart, aggressive and some are stupid.
The pandemic-disrupted 2020 season featured few notes between the two. But 2021 will be very different.
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2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
From the opening round in Bahrain, 2021 has promised to be the year Hamilton and Verstappen battle it out in the closest championship race. Despite what had gone before, few expected mutual animosity to reach this level.
Opening salvos were exchanged in the first race of the season in Bahrain: Verstappen passed Hamilton for the lead late in the race, but ran off-track and regained the position. The first victory went to Hamilton.
So when Verstappen quickly moved away from third place in the race at Imola, Hamilton avoided hanging on the outside of the Tamburello chicane, forcing his rival into the tight junctions on the outside and leaving the Mercedes. Slightly damaged front wing.
2021 British Grand Prix
The exchange of arms continued. In Portugal, Hamilton overtook Verstappen and scored his second victory by attacking back and closing on the exit of the corner. In the fourth lap in Spain, Verstappen dived in at turn one and Hamilton went out of the way to avoid contact. But the Mercedes driver got back to it later in the race and took victory number three.
Verstappen then went on a tear, winning four of five races to take a 32-point lead in the championship at Hamilton’s home race. He won that and overtook pole-winner Hamilton at the start of his first race in F1 to put himself on pole position for the Grand Prix.
But on Sunday, Hamilton had the best ride and tested Verstappen’s defense around the first eight corners of Silverstone. They roared to Kopps, with Hamilton still on the Red Bull side, before Verstappen went back to the racing line and swung into the corner with Hamilton on the inside.
The resulting contact was disastrous for Verstappen and, much to his and Red Bull’s anger, ultimately had no consequences for Hamilton. Red Bull was involved in the Copse barrier where Verstappen pulled himself out but was later taken to hospital for tests. Hamilton suffered near-terminal damage, but the race was red-flagged for the Mercedes to repair. The stewards decided he was “primarily” to blame for the crash and handed him a 10-second time penalty, but Hamilton overcame that as he burned through the field to win the race.
Red Bull were furious and took the unprecedented step of enlisting reserve driver Alexander Albon to request a penalty for creating Hamilton’s lane through the corner at the following testing session. Their request was not accepted.
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2021 Italian Grand Prix
The next collision happened at a much lower speed, but could have been dangerous. After trying to pass the Mercedes driver at Monza, Verstappen landed on Hamilton.
The Red Bull driver was running in a solid second place behind Daniel Ricciardo until he lost time at a slow pit stop. Hamilton exited the pit stop in front of Red Bull.
Verstappen tried to pass Retifilo at the outside of turn one, but was left behind the Mercedes on the way. He tried to stay inside for the next left hand, but he drove and rode on the top turnbuckle inside. to Mercedes.
While the stewards held Verstappen “primarily” responsible for the crash, the car was “never with car 44 [Hamilton] until it significantly turns into a turn.”
“In the opinion of the stewards, this manual was tested too late for the driver of car 33. [Verstappen] ‘To have the rights to the racing class,’ he added. He was given a three-place grid penalty for the next race.
2021 Brazilian Grand Prix
With four grands prix to go, the championship arithmetic was simple: Hamilton could only be sure of finishing second behind Verstappen if he won each one.
Mercedes was the fastest car in Brazil, but Hamilton had to fight behind him for power unit changes and penalties for technical violations. Verstappen was the last driver to pass to take the lead.
The situation posed a recurring dilemma for Hamilton in the 2021 final. He needed to find a way past Verstappen without risking a race-finish connection. A collision that took them both out left Hamilton with a narrow chance to close the points gap, and they played in front of Verstappen.
Verstappen clearly understood this and pushed his defensive strategy to new extremes. Approaching Desida do Lado, turn four at Interlagos, Hamilton ahead of Verstappen on the outside. Verstappen braked late, missed the corner and ran off the track on the exit. Hamilton saw it coming and pulled over to avoid a collision and successfully took it, beating Verstappen later.
To the surprise of many, the stewards did not take any action on the act. This decision was questioned by several drivers who were not penalized for similar actions at the beginning of the year. After new video footage emerged from Verstappen’s car, Mercedes successfully appealed to the stewards to review their decision, but they upheld the decision not to penalize Verstappen.
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2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
The ever-increasing Hamilton played out again on lap 37 of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when he tried to pass Verstappen on the outside of a corner. This time Verstappen crossed and went on the run again, while Hamilton returned to the track as quickly as possible.
As of Bahrain, Red Bull realized that this stop was not allowed and told Verstappen to give Hamilton his place back. He decided to do this immediately before the DRS zone, which would have immediately given him the opportunity to overtake Mercedes again. Hamilton saw this coming and pulled back as he closed in on the Red Bull. So Verstappen hit the brakes and Hamilton ran behind him.
The stewards said Verstappen braked “suddenly and significantly” and “in a collision-causing manner”. For this, he was given a 10-second time penalty in addition to the five-second penalty for going off the track. Hamilton emerged from the chaos to win, his car still bearing the damage from the contact, and the pair entered the final race stage on points.
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
In the year The events of the final round of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix have boosted the race to prominence, but have also overshadowed the controversy surrounding the competitors’ first round dice.
Vertappen started from pole but Hamilton immediately took the lead at turn six and dived to pass Verstappen on the inside. Hamilton found he had no room on the exit and cut the chicane completely to continue, while Verstappen remained on course.
Although Hamilton rejoined ahead of his rival, the stewards forced Verstappen off the circuit, giving the Mercedes driver the time advantage he had already gained.
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2022 Brazilian Grand Prix
Hamilton and Verstappen They are not involved in extended track contact until the final weekend of 2022. He passed the injured Verstappen in the sprint race at Interlagos, but the pair squared off in the main event.
On the safety car restart, Verstappen tried to get around the outside of Hamilton and nosed ahead at the left-hand bend, although he braked too late to do so and Hamilton took the lead again on the exit of the corner. Verstappen tried to take the inside lane for lap two, but Hamilton kept right into the corner and made it to the edge.
The stewards came down on Hamilton’s side, saying Verstappen “didn’t complete the pass in turn one and his excessive speed spoiled his entry into turn two, where he made contact with Hamilton” and was therefore “primarily” at fault.
The clash had shades of Monza 2021 about it. Hamilton may have been judged on the right, but was the position reversed, giving Verstappen more room on exit one to attempt a pass at the next corner?
Still, Hamilton seemed unprepared to fight Verstappen as the Red Bull driver pushed him. Verstappen is a strong driver, but he seems to have taken a particularly hard line with Hamilton, and has shown time and time again that he is more ready to deal with him than others.
For most of 2021, Hamilton risked being eliminated in a collision with Verstappen. That was almost certainly true last weekend, too, not to squander Mercedes’ best hopes of racing so far this year.
Now that box is ticked, he and Verstappen will battle it out again this weekend on the same piece of tarmac – and it will be interesting to see just how aggressive Hamilton is prepared to be in the lead up to 2023.
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