Hamilton drives a completely different line in duel with Verstappen

F1 News

13 September 2021 at 08:33
12
  • GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have hit each other again. After Max Verstappen was the biggest victim of their previous clash in Britain, both title rivals were now out of the race. Footage shows that Hamilton drove a slightly different line against Verstappen than in an earlier duel. But the two are extremely difficult to compare. When the rivals crashed, Hamilton came out of the pit lane 

Hamilton and Verstappen don't give each other an inch of space anymore. That much is clear by now. On the first lap of the race Verstappen and Hamilton already met, when Max was on the inside at the second chicane. He gave no space to Lewis at that moment, who had to avoid an incident over the kerbs.

Hamilton versus Verstappen

Lewis had already fought a duel with Lando Norris in the first chicane, where he showed that you can go through the chicane with two people without crashing. The interesting thing is, when you compare those images, you can see that Hamilton is driving a very different line when duelling with Norris, while Verstappen is driving a similar line.

Like Norris, Verstappen isn't in front of Hamilton, but he's clearly off the line halfway through the chicane. Like Norris, Verstappen leaves his car in place, but unlike the duel with Norris, Hamilton closes the door much sooner this time. Where he steered a bit more to the outside of Norris and went for a good exit, he cut off Verstappen more. As a result, there is hardly any room for Max, who lands on the kerb and causes the crash.