Max Verstappen was really upset about Lewis Hamilton’s DNF during the Spanish GP, and his team radio message about it couldn’t be played on TV.
Max Verstappen was pretty upset about what happened that caused Lewis Hamilton to retire at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s Ferrari had a brake problem at the Circuito de Madrid, which dropped him from third place to the back and forced him to stop racing. Early on, Hamilton and Verstappen had a clash on lap one, and that moment made Verstappen angry later when his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, told him to let Hamilton pass.
Hamilton started the race in fourth but quickly pushed forward, almost taking the lead at turn one after a great start. He had to back off and fell behind McLaren, with Verstappen on the outside. Verstappen tried to avoid a crash and kept his position instead of giving it back straight away. He then moved up to second place after Kimi Antonelli had to let Lando Norris pass.
Verstappen’s engineer ordered him to give the spot back to Hamilton, which also meant letting Antonelli pass him into second. Even though Verstappen didn’t like it, he followed the team’s orders and ended up in fourth, just ahead of Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc.
But soon after, Hamilton started having brake problems and then a full failure that dropped him down the race. Verstappen was the first to pass him, while Hamilton struggled, went off the track, and came back. Verstappen was clearly frustrated on the radio, using strong words about how unfair the situation was. This message wasn’t shown on TV, probably because F1 doesn’t want bad sportsmanship aired live.
Hamilton had to retire, ending his streak of completing every lap this season. His engineer, Carlo Santi, said the brake system failed but didn’t give more details. Ferrari tried to keep Hamilton going, saying the brake pedal would feel different, but it wasn’t enough, so he had to pit and stop.
Because of this, Hamilton won’t be able to pass George Russell in the Drivers’ Championship, as Russell started the race with a 10-point lead. Norris, who was in fourth place, is now 20 points behind Hamilton.