Hamilton: Verstappen not making mature decisions
Lewis Hamilton has questioned Max Verstappen's maturity after their clash in the Bahrain Grand Prix, suggesting that someone with greater experience would have brought points home for Red Bull on Sunday.
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Verstappen and Hamilton made contact in the early part of the race after the Red Bull driver ran wide, squeezing his rival.
Hamilton escaped with no damage from the contact, but Verstappen suffered a broken wheel and puncture, while a differential failure caused his retirement.
Verstappen's team boss Christian Horner insisted that it was was an incident behind two hard racers, and that's what TV viewers wanted to see.
But Hamilton said a more experienced driver would have brought the car home.
"It's interesting to hear from Christian," said Hamilton. "Because they've got a car that should be getting good results.
"And through these these kind of, I don't know if they're inexperienced or not totally mature decisions, they are not getting the results they should.
"Today he should have finished a decent race, because he's good enough to do that. I think to myself if Fernando [Alonso] was in that car today he would have finished a decent race and got points for Red Bull.
"I like to think if I was in that car today I would have got points for Red Bull. I just hope for them he's learning through whatever situation he's going through. I went through that stuff when I was a young guy, so I know how it is."
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The world champion insisted that he had conceded the corner and left the Dutchman room to get safely past.
"We were racing, which was all fine. Often when the car outside is running out of road, if you look at it I was ahead for quite a period of time, and then I accepted defeat, and I just I backed out, because I knew he was going to try to run me wide, maybe," he said.
"But then he just kept going. He didn't need to keep going, to be at the track."
Horner said after the race that blame should be equally shared.
"It was hard racing," said the Red Bull boss. "Max is a hard racer. Lewis is a hard racer. When you put that combination together, that's why people turn on their TV sets at the end of the day. You can argue it both ways.
"From Max's position Lewis should have conceded the corner, given up, and from Lewis's position he's saying Max gave him no room to work with.
"You've got two drivers fighting over the same piece of tarmac and unfortunately the contact with Lewis's front wing endplate and Max's rear wheel is ultimately what's done the damage. He was lucky to get away with no damage to his own car."
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