Max Verstappen accuses Lewis Hamilton of ‘not respecting’ rules in first-lap battle at F1 Australian GP
The 2021 title rivals engaged in a first-lap fight for position in Sunday’s r🅘ace at Melbourne, with Hamilton emerging from Turn 3 ahead of the Red Bull driver after diving down the inside.
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Verstappen and Hamilton almost made contact at the apex of the corner but ultim👍ately avoided coming to blows, with bo🐬th remaining inside the white lines of the race track.
But the reigni🦹ng world cha✤mpion was left unhappy with the way that Hamilton overtook him.
"Of course, my lap one wasn't amazing but I know that ꦦwe have a quick car so there is no need to beꦍ aggressive and risk damage on the car,” Verstappen told Sky.
"The others realised their chance is the other way around so that is w📖hy they were aggressive, which is fair🌸 enough. I would probably do the same if it was the other way around.
“I think with these new rules that are set out🙈 t✅hat if you are racing from the outside, if you are ahead at the apex, you need to be given space at the exit, which I thought I wasn't because I was literally avoiding being crashed into.
"I will raise it but I also don't really want to make it a big th💫ing.
"But when the rules were written lꦜike that I thou🍌ght they would be respected.
“But it’s okay, I was quite careful of lap one, I c🦄ould have probably defended a bit better, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
He earlier reacted: "I tried to avoid c🅘ontact. It’s quite clear, with the rules, on what you’re allowed to do from the outside. Clearly, it’s not followed. But that’s okay - we had good pace 🐻so we passed them anyway."
Verstappen later pulled off an easy pass on Hamilton to retake the lead on his way to claiming his second victory of the season an♒d his first win at Melbourne.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton, who secured Mercedes’ best result of the season with second, saw nothing wrong with his first-lap skirmish with Ver🍨stappen.
“I thought it was pretty decent,” he said.
“He braked early, I ༺braked late and I was fully up the inside and we both left space for each other.
“I didn’t run him off the road, he didn’𒐪t turn in on me, so we didn🅺’t touch and that’s racing.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for wuqian0821.com around t🤡he world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
