British GP : Post-race comments from Max Verstappen and Red Bull

Max Verstappen’s hopes of scoring a sixth win of the 2021 Formula 1 season at Silverstone were over within moments of the start of the British Grand Prix when a collision involving Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton saw the Dutch driver crash out of the race and bring out the red flags.

Hamilton was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision, but he went on to win the home race in-front of 1,40,000 British fans.

Sergio Pérez finished in P16, after starting from the pit lane. At the race restart the Mexican was P19 on the grid and charged up to P9 before team called him for third pit-stop.

The most baffling thing is he was in P9 and he could have brought home two points. But the Team pitted him for a new set of soft tyres and he claimed the fastest lap. Do the team sacrificed two valuable points to take one point away from Lewis Hamilton ?

Starting from pole position, Max made a good getaway at lights out and took the lead as the field streamed through the first corner. Hamilton, though, was quickly on the attack and Max continued to hold the lead, particularly with a move through Woodcote.

The Mercedes driver then went for the overtake once again on the high-speed run to Copse. The Brit went down the inside of Max and as he turned in, the Mercedes clipped the right-rear wheel of the Dutchman’s RB16B and the Bull span off at high speed, hitting the wall in a huge impact, destroying the left-hand side of the car.

Fortunately, Max managed to climb out of the car by himself, however, following an assessment by the trackside doctors at Silverstone Circuit Medical Centre, the Dutchman was taken to a local hospital for further precautionary tests.

Max Verstappen (DNF)

“Very disappointed with being taken out like this. The penalty given does not help us and doesn’t do justice to the dangerous move Lewis made on track. Watching the celebrations while still in hospital is disrespectful and unsportsmanlike behaviour but we move on.”

Sergio Perez (P16)

“I’m very disappointed with my weekend and my performance. I wasn’t able to make as much progress as expected and found myself in a very difficult position with the tyres. As soon as we were in the DRS train it was impossible to overtake people. I think P7 was possible today, with a couple more laps I think I could have got Lance and Fernando but in the end for strategic reasons we decided to stop to take the fastest lap.

“It’s a weekend for us to forget and we lost a lot of ground in the Championship, we need to regroup, work hard and come back as strong as possible in Hungary. I need to re-watch the incident with Max and Lewis as I haven’t seen it, but the most important thing that Max is okay.”

Christian Horner , Team Principal

“This is an incredibly difficult way to end the British Grand Prix weekend and it goes without saying that we are all just thankful Max was able to walk away from the car, despite later being taken to hospital for precautionary checks, where he currently remains for observation.

I have reviewed the footage many times and still cannot help but feel that putting a wheel up the inside at Copse, one of the fastest corners in this World Championship, was ill-judged and a huge risk by Lewis to both drivers.

He was not significantly alongside Max as you can see from the point of contact, Lewis’ front left to Max’s right rear. The move was never on and resulted in a 51G impact for Max. We are in contact with Max and Jos and will provide an update later today.

For Checo, it was also not an easy afternoon and after starting from the pit lane and making early progress through the field he was stuck in a mid-field DRS train creating high tyre degradation. We therefore opted to pit him towards the end of the race in order to secure fastest lap. We come away with a slim lead in both Championships and you can be sure that once we have had time to reflect on today, all this weekend will do is add fire to our Championship fight.”