Max Verstappen gave his thoughts on the crash between Sir Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at the Belgian Grand Prix after winning the race.
In a hectic first lap in which Verstappen gained numerous positions after starting down in P14 due to a grid penalty, Hamilton and Alonso came together.
The Mercedes driver tried to pass his former team-mate around the outside but there wasn’t enough space and the two therefore made contact.
Said contact sent Hamilton flying into the air and caused him to retire from the race, and while Alonso made it through the incident largely unscathed, he was furious with the seven-time World Champion, criticising his driving on the team radio.
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It turned out to be perhaps the biggest incident of the race and was thus shown on the screens in the cooldown room after the race.
Verstappen, having just won ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez, watched it with the Mexican and gave his thoughts.
“Okay well that was not a car’s width,” he said, referring to the space Hamilton left Alonso.
“That’s a big hit.”
Verstappen also spoke of how he had to exercise caution to avoid all the incidents ahead of him and was forced to rip off a visor tear-off due to dust kicked up by them.
Rewatching the incident himself afterwards, Hamilton admitted that he was to blame for the collision that ended his day.
“Looking back at the footage, he was in my blind spot and I didn’t give him enough space,” he said.
“It was my fault, I couldn’t see him – he was right in my blind spot.”
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To make matters worse for the Brit, Carlos Sainz and George Russell, the two drivers closest to him in the standings, both enjoyed strong races, crossing the line in P3 and P4 respectively.
As a result, Hamilton now trails the Ferrari man by 25 points and his team-mate by 24. Given he doesn’t have the machinery to win races, closing those gaps could be difficult.
If he doesn’t do so, it will be the first time since 2016 that he finishes the season behind a team-mate in the standings, and only the third time in his F1 career.
On the bright side, the gap to Lando Norris behind him didn’t come down with the McLaren failing to score any points too