Like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost? The comparison is definitely “burned” by the fans, but what happened today during the 26th lap of the Italian GP, round of the 2021 F1 World Championship, brings back to those great disputes that had characterized F1 at the end of the years’ 80 and early 90s.
The accident at the first variant between Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) brought to mind those moments and attributing responsibility is not easy. For sure, the ‘work’ of the Halo is to be thanked because when Max’s car literally got on Lewis’s head the protection of this device worked and saved Stevenage’s native ace.
A duel that had already taken place in lap-1 at the entrance to the Roggia variant and in that case it was Hamilton who found himself on the outside and had to give up due to a Verstappen determined to keep the position. What has changed in the 26th session? Certainly, the space allowed by Lewis was not much, but at the same time the Dutchman, eager to be in front of a Hamilton coming out of the pits, paid no attention to anything or anyone and ended up losing control of the car.. According to the British, an ‘opportunistic’ way of thinking due to the advantage in the general classification, while for the Dutchman caused by Lewis’ little space.
It could be defined in a somewhat Solomonic way as a concurrence of guilt which will be discussed by the interested parties and the Stewards who will be called to express an evaluation of the incident. One can be sure that the episode will further fuel the rivalry, which has already flared up in the case of the Silverstone incident.
Photo: LaPresse
