–
Michael Bleekemolen is not pleased with the behavior of Lewis Hamilton after his victory in the British Grand Prix. According to the former Formula 1 driver, Hamilton could at least have asked immediately after the race how it was with Max Verstappen, who crashed hard in Copse corner after contact with the Briton, recorded a DNF and watched from the hospital how his title competitor took the full loot and ran into the world championship.
Hamilton was designated by race management as the main culprit for Verstappen’s crash and received a ten-second time penalty. However, that didn’t stop him from taking the win at Silverstone, after which he celebrated his victory exuberantly in front of his own audience. In the interview immediately afterwards, the attention was initially mainly focused on his own euphoria and the fans, who, according to Hamilton, showed that they are the best supporters in the world. The seven-time world champion was criticized for this, including from Verstappen himself, who called the behavior “unsportsmanlike” and “disrespectful”.
–
Hamilton is not making himself popular
Verstappen is supported by Bleekemolen. According to him, it would have been only normal if Hamilton had been the first to ask about Verstappen’s condition immediately after the race, but the Mercedesdriver not. With this he scores no points at Bleekemolen and that is not the first time this season. “Every time there is something. He also shouts all the time that they no longer have fast engines at Mercedes compared to Red Bull, but I think they are almost as fast. It is mainly shouting and complaining all the time. That he then goes on the podium and doesn’t even know what’s going on with Verstappen, I think those are all weird things. Hamilton loses a lot of credits with all his fans,” the 71-year-old driver expects.
‘It doesn’t suit him’
Given Verstappen’s hard blow and the fact that the Red Bull driver was in hospital, Bleekemolen is of the opinion that Hamilton celebrated his victory too exuberantly afterwards. “Yes, I think so. He should have handled that differently. It is not that he has won for the first time, then I can imagine that you ‘maybe’ forget it. However, this was his umpteenth victory, so he could have inquired about how it was with Verstappen. It does not suit him that he approaches everything like this,” says the born Amsterdammer.
Mercedes directly in the defense
As Verstappen climbed out of his totally destroyed RB16B visibly shaken, Mercedes immediately contacted race director Michael Masi to defend Hamilton. “Of course they always stand up for their driver. That is also the nice thing about the sport. It is a sport in which people are always agitating against each other, so that is also part of it,” Bleekemolen thinks.
In this case, however, he could show less sympathy for Mercedes, given Verstappen’s hard crash. “These are serious matters, so you have to treat it fairly. It’s just covering what they do. They were clearly afraid of any punishment, so they thought: ‘let’s help him a little’. That was weird,” said the former Formula 1 driver.
– .
