Verstappen attacks Hamilton: “Stupid idiot” and makes the middle finger

Provocations, “Stupid idiot” on the radio and middle finger to the Mercedes. Between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were immediately sparks in the second free practice of the US GP. The session ignited immediately when the Dutchman from Red Bull blew the position from Hamilton on the launch lap at three quarters of the way. Then Max slowed down to distance himself from a competitor in front and Hamilton gave him back the “rudeness” and joined his rival’s Red Bull, inside the last left turn before the finish straight.

Reaction

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Verstappen reacted by accelerating and the result was an incredible wheel to wheel for a Friday of free practice. The two touched each other, with the two single-seaters glued together in acceleration so as not to give way. In the end, the duel between alpha males saw the Dutchman give up and after turn 1 he shouted over the radio “Stupid idiot” at Hamilton, also showing him his middle finger. Definitely a pretty good start to the weekend in Austin.

Horner: “Mercedes has a trick.” Wolff: “Noise …”

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Also because the tension between Red Bull and Mercedes is very high, the World Championship is really in the decisive phase. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said today that in his opinion, “Mercedes has taken a step forward in straight line speed and we are struggling to get close with just the set-up. I think Mercedes is optimizing a device that allows for more straight-line speeds. If you look at the back of their car it is as if it is lowering ”. Laconic the Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff in the reply: “It is a sport in which all the opponents will always try to find out if there is some sort of silver bullet – he said – it is something that does not exist, they are all small marginal gains that bring performance. We work on the machine to improve performance without caring too much about the noise of others ”.

These are the times of free 2

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These are the times of the FP2 of the US GP:

1. Perez (Red Bull) 1’34 ”946
2. Norris (McLaren) 1’35”203
3. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1’35”310
4. Bottas (Mercedes) 1’35 ”360
5. Ricciardo (McLaren) 1’35 ”457
6. Stroll (Aston Martin) 1’35”561
7. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1’35 ”572
8. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1’35”824
9. Sainz (Ferrari) 1’35 ”919
10. Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) 1’36 ”138
11. Ocon (Alpine) 1’36”158
12. Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1’36”242
13. Alonso (Alpine) 1’36 ”376
14. Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1’36 ”558
15. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1’36”718
16. Tsoda (Alpha Tauri) 1’36 ”983
17. Schumacher (Haas) 1’37 ”041
18. Latifi (Williams) 1’37”254
19. Russell (Williams) 1’37”490
20. Mazepin (Haas) 1’38 ”026

US GP, free practice times 1

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These are the times of the FP1 of the US GP:

1. Bottas (Mercedes) 1’34 ”874
2. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1’34”919
3. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1’35”806
4. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1’36 ”334
5. Sainz (Ferrari) 1’36 “508
6. Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1’36”611
7. Perez (Red Bull) 1’36 ”798
8. Norris (McLaren) 1’36”855
9. Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) 1’36 ”874
10. Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1’36 ”876
11. Russell (Williams) 1’36”966
12. Ocon (Alpine) 1’36”970
13. Stroll (Aston Martin) 1’36”972
14. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1’36”982
15. Alonso (Alpine) 1’37 ”068
16. Ricciardo (McLaren) 1’37 ”458
17. Latifi (Williams) 1’37”463
18. Tsoda (AlphaTauri) 1’37 ”954
19. Schumacher (Haas) 1’38 ”866
20. Mazepin (Haas) 1’42 ”239

World rankings

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These are the championship standings after the Turkish GP: 1. Verstappen (Ola) 262.5 points 2. Hamilton (GB) 256.5 3. Bottas (Fin) 177 4. Norris (GB) 145 5. Perez (Mes) 135 6. Sainz (Spa) 116.5 7. Leclerc (Mon) 116 8. Ricciardo (Aus) 95 9. Gasly (Fra) 74 10. Alonso (Spa) 58 11. Ocon (Fra) 46 12. Vettel (Ger ) 35 13. Stroll (Can) 26 14. Tsunoda (Gia) 18 15. Russell (GB) 16 16. Latifi (Can) 7 17. Raikkonen (Fin) 6 18. Giovinazzi (Ita) 1 Constructors 1. Mercedes 433, 5 2. Red Bull 397.5 3. McLaren 240 4. Ferrari 232.5 5. Alpine 104 6. AlphaTauri 92 7. Aston Martin 61 8. Williams 23 9. Alfa Romeo 7 10. Haas 0