Max Verstappen was handed a public rebuke by his own engineer on Sunday when he blamed Red Bull’s strategy for finishing a frustrated fifth after surviving a collision with Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The drivers’ championship leader and three-time world champion crashed into Hamilton on lap 63 of the 70-lap race. Verstappen, 26, then remonstrated on team radio and was told not to “be childish” by his race engineer. The Dutch driver was summoned to the stewards office to explain his part in the accident, but no further action was taken by the officials.

Verstappen had ranted in a series of radio messages, many including profanities, about his car, strategy and the accident that most observers promptly said was his fault.

When Verstappen blamed Hamilton for the collision, by moving in his ‘braking zone’, his normally mild-mannered engineer Gianpiero Lambiase replied in a firm tone.

“I am not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max,” he said.

“We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio, childish.”

Verstappen defended his behaviour.

“I don’t know why people think that you can’t be vocal on a radio,” he said.

“This is a sport and if some people don’t like that — then stay home,” he added.

‘Racing incident’

This came after a series of notable incidents involving Verstappen, all of which suggested he and Red Bull are struggling with the pressure as McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari close down their performance and points advantage.

Oscar Piastri won the race ahead of McLaren team-mate Lando Norris with Hamilton finishing third, leaving Verstappen and Red Bull without a win in three races and with three wins in their last eight.

Verstappen, who was briefly airborne after crashing into Hamilton as he attempted to launch his car down the inside at Turn One, was in defiant mood.

“I went for a move that was fully on, but when I was in the middle of the braking zone and already committed, he keeps warping right,” he said.

“If I hadn’t turned while braking straight, I would have made contact with him.”

Told of Verstappen’s explanation after the race, Hamilton smiled.

“Ultimately, I think he was much quicker. I moved a little to defend and I left enough space on the inside and he locked up and then obviously couldn’t turn.

“So he came under a different trajectory and he clipped my wheel.

“I saw him coming from a long way back and he was able to brake a lot later than me, but he sent it up the inside.

“I stayed still and he clipped the wheel and went over so I think a racing incident,” he added.

Verstappen’s advantage was trimmed to 76 by Norris.

His Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez finished seventh after starting from 16th on the grid 24 hours after team boss Christian Horner had lambasted him for his fourth Q1 exit in seven qualifying sessions, adding “you can’t win a race on one leg”.

945 days. 56 Grand Prix races. For a man who had won in every season of Formula 1 till then to have to wait for so long for another win seems beyond belief. But Sir Lewis Hamilton – the most successful driver in the history of his sport – had to wait that long. Through spells of agony, self-doubt and crushed glimmers of hope. But when it came, it came in the best way possible. Lewis Hamilton claimed his 104th F1 win at his home British Grand Prix on Sunday.

The win was, by all means, a fairytale. On a track no one drives quite like he does. In front of a colosseum of fans adorned in his masks and race number ’44’. He had won in Silverstone a record eight times before – including perhaps one of Formula 1’s greatest-ever drives in 2008 – but his ninth win, in 2024, is perhaps the most special.

“I can’t stop crying,” said Hamilton in the post-race interview. “Since 2021, every day getting up, trying to fight, to train, to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can,” Hamilton tried to reason.

He didn’t need to. After having a championship taken away from him in heartbreaking circumstances at the end of 2021, Hamilton never got a chance to fight back as Mercedes fell down the pecking order.

Too many times, he had had his ability questioned. Sunday allowed Lewis Hamilton to release years of pent-up emotion: from needing a result for the effort he put, to being able to prove, to himself, that he has still got it. Oh boy, has he still got it.

On Sunday, Hamilton rode the ebbs and flows better than anyone else. He overtook teammate and pole-sitter George Russell on track. He then closed the gap to Lando Norris in a faster McLaren through a tricky spell of rain. Blitzed his outlap to overtake Norris after the final pitstops. And when Norris faded, Hamilton stayed strong, taking care of his soft tyres till the end to hold off a fast-charging Max Verstappen.

It wasn’t a win through luck, or in the fastest car; accusations that’ve unfairly been thrown Hamilton’s way in the past. Instead, it was a display of sheer genius. Hamilton was the best driver on Sunday. Period.

Hamilton himself admitted that he rarely cries. But as he teared up inside his car and then went on to have a long embrace with his father, it brought back memories of Turkey 2020.

Turkey 2020 was the race when Hamilton equalled the record for the most championships in Formula 1 history. The fact that this win caused Hamilton to react in a similar manner to that record-breaking race tells you everything about the magnitude, and what it meant to him.

To top it all off, the win came in Silverstone, his home race. The circuit where a part of the track is named after him. It’s the place where the crowd roars loudest for Formula 1’s most popular driver. As an emotional Hamilton jumped over the barriers and waved the Union Jack high, it was hard to not let a tear escape.

“To make him win again, at the British Grand Prix, in his last race for Mercedes here, it’s almost like a little fairytale. You couldn’t have scripted it better,” quipped Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff at the end of the race.

Despite turning 40 next year, Hamilton may still have many more romantic chapters to write as he prepares to don the Ferrari red next season. But he’ll have to do quite something to beat Sunday’s storyline.

Mercedes’ driver Lewis Hamilton waits to compete in the Formula One British Grand Prix on July 7, 2024.© AFP

George Russell is the form man in Formula 1 at the moment, as he grabbed a second pole position in four races to head an all-British top 3 in the British Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday. Russell finished 0.171s ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who qualified P2. McLaren’s Lando Norris slotted in third, despite being the favourite going into qualifying. His teammate Oscar Piastri qualified P5. It was a disappointing day for Max Verstappen by his standards, as he qualified only fourth. But how did Mercedes come out on top?

Wet weather the secret to Mercedes success

Not for the first time in 2024, the Mercedes came alive in cooler conditions. Much like the Canadian GP when Russell grabbed pole, a wet-to-dry qualifying session suited the Mercedes car during qualifying, making them the team to beat on the soft tyre runs.

Championship leader Max Verstappen went off into the gravel in Q1, and a possible loss of downforce from that incident meant that the Dutchman was never really in contention for pole.

With rain on the cards on Sunday, George Russell will be eyeing up a second successive win, after his Austrian GP success last weekend.

Watch out for Hamilton, Norris

Lewis Hamilton is an eight-time winner at Silverstone, and no driver drives the circuit quite like the seven-time world champion. Starting on the front row, Hamilton, for once in 2024, will not have to rue a poor qualifying result.

Lando Norris in the McLaren is likely to also take the fight to the two Silver Arrows. In recent weekends, the McLaren has been the fastest car on raceday.

Day to forget for Ferrari

Ferrari have abruptly fallen behind Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes, proved by the fact that Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas outqualified Carlos Sainz. The day was even worse for Charles Leclerc, who failed to make it to Q3.

Lance Stroll (P8) also outqualified Fernando Alonso (P10) in the Aston Martin team.

Earlier in the day, Sergio Perez beached it in the gravel in Q1, meaning it was yet another Q1 elimination for the Mexican.

British GP Qualifying Top 10: 1. George Russell, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Lando Norris, 4. Max Verstappen, 5. Oscar Piastri, 6. Nico Hulkenberg, 7. Carlos Sainz, 8. Lance Stroll, 9. Alex Albon, 10. Fernando Alonso.

McLaren driver Lando Norris fought right to the end, but it was Max Verstappen who won his seventh race of the season at the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix. The gap between the two drivers were separated by only 2.2 seconds at the chequered flag, after a valiant push from the British driver, to close the gap from more than eight seconds at one point. Mercedes finished third and fourth for the second consecutive race, but this time, Lewis Hamilton grabbed his first Grand Prix podium of 2024.

At the start of the race, George Russell went from fourth to first in the first turn, with an audacious move. Crucially, Verstappen also pipped pole-sitter Norris at the start. The Dutchman would soon overtake Russell on Lap 3, a move that would allow him to manage his pace and tyres at the front.

Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished where they started, coming home in fifth and sixth. Leclerc was less than a second behind Russell at the end.

Home hero Fernando Alonso endured a race to forget, finishing pointless at a disappointing 12th place. 

Russell was ahead of Norris and Hamilton for most of the race. However, Mercedes’ decision to put hard tyres on his final stint proved to be the wrong choice, as he slipped down the podium places.

Sainz also spent most of the race ahead of Leclerc, having overtaken him in Lap 2. However, he also fell victim to the hard tyres.

Oscar Piastri recovered from his worst qualifying of 2024 to finish seventh, while Sergio Perez got eighth. 

And it was a bright day for French constructors Alpine, as both Pierre Gasly (P9) and Esteban Ocon (P10) finished in the points. 

Verstappen continues to lead the championship standings, now going 70 points in front of everyone. Norris, however, has leapfrogged Leclerc to second.

The F1 circus next heads to Austria, for the Austrian GP, on June 30.

McLaren’s Lando Norris (centre) took pole position for the Spanish GP.© AFP

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton topped the times ahead of Australian Oscar Piastri in an intriguing opening free practice for this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. Hamilton clocked a best lap in his Mercedes of 1minute and 12.169 seconds to outpace McLaren’s Piastri by 0.029sec with his ‘silver arrows’ team-mate George Russell third. Lando Norris was fourth in the second McLaren ahead of local favourite Charles Leclerc in the leading Ferrari, two-time champion Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll. 

The late pause, after Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu lost control of his Sauber, interrupted some teams’ plans to switch to soft tyres in the closing minutes, leading to an unrepresentative outcome.

Three-time world champion Max Verstappen, who did not run on softs, complained about his Red Bull car as he struggled in 11th place and 0.815secs off the pace. 

“It is so loose on the bumps, any correction with engine braking or brake bias just makes it worse,” said Verstappen, who remarked on Thursday he envisaged a tough weekend labelling the track “one of the more difficult” for the team.

McLaren introduced a striking yellow and green livery as a tribute to the late Ayrton Senna, one of many changes as the teams switched from the sweeping corners of Imola last weekend to the narrow and unforgiving barriers of Monaco. 

On an overcast day with rain threatening, Hamilton led the cars out of the pit-lane to start the session, most teams opting for hards. 

Piastri set the early pace ahead of Verstappen whose father Jos was present for the first time since Red Bull’s early season off the track difficulties.

Norris soon took over for McLaren with a lap in 1:15.294 before Leclerc gained the initiative in 1:14.238.

Norris and Leclerc continued swapping fastest laps, the Monegasque showing his form on the track that was his childhood bus-run to school. 

After 30 minutes of the hour Verstappen and then Hamilton moved up to second before Russell went top on softs ahead of his Mercedes team-mate.

Hamilton then improved to 1:12.169 to go top before Zhou Guanyu crashed to trigger a red flag. 

The Chinese driver clipped a barrier and lost part of his front wing which was then collected by Leclerc’s Ferrari as he ran over the debris. 

This forced Leclerc to pit for repairs as light rain fell and on resumption Perez pitted with a puncture.

Lewis Hamilton said he was grateful for a moment of reflection on Thursday morning when he recalled his first visits to Monaco and the realisation of his teenage dreams. Speaking ahead of this weekend’s 81st running of the Monaco Grand Prix, the seven-time world champion said he had a striking sense of the history and majesty of the event that he first attended as a 13-year-old as he arrived in the famous harbour driving through the tunnel.

“I really felt the place and its history and as I came through the tunnel I remembered Ayrton (Senna) from watching it on TV as a kid and that it felt surreal to think that I am now one of the 22 to do it – and that I have been doing it for so long,” he said.

“It was my dream when I was 13 and I came here the first time and I thought this is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been and I want to live here.”

Hamilton not only realised that dream, winning the Monaco Grand Prix three times – in 2008, 2016 and 2019 – but by buying an apartment and living in the Mediterranean principality.

“I raced here the first time when I was 18 or 19,” he added.

“In Formula Three. And it was epic. I had a rented scooter and I was running around town and I went up to Eze and it was really epic for me. And then, I got to go on the grid and it was crazy because I had only ever seen Martin Brundle there.

“It’s a crazy place, a special place, it’s the pearl of our sport and the second smallest country in the world.”

Hamilton’s golden recollection of his early experiences in Monaco may not have coincided with W. Somerset Maugham’s description of the principality as “a sunny place for shady people”, but it was heart-felt.

The Mercedes driver, who is set to join Ferrari next year, has not allowed the demise of his team’s form to diminish his pleasure from driving and suggested he will relish the action again this weekend.

Now 39, he takes a more mellowed view of his racing than he did as a forceful younger man.

“We don’t have any upgrades this weekend,” he said. “The package was spread over the last two races. We have our highest downforce package and an evolved wing, but otherwise I don’t know where we’ll be.

“But I am more excited than I have been with the previous two cars. They were not so great. This one is a real work in progress and it’s much better than last year.

“There are so many things to consider – how high or low to run, the balance, weight distribution, cambers and tows. It is one thing to practice in the ‘sim’, but it is only at the track that you discover the issues you may or may not have.

“I hope we just hit the ground running and we don’t look back, but that’s not been the case for the last two years. But this car is more predictable and it is nice to drive. It’s not perfect, but we are going in the right direction.”