The Bahrain Grand Prix was a race that got a tail end. Many disagreed that Lewis Hamilton was not penalized for repeatedly leaving the track on the exit of turn four, while Max Verstappen was ordered to return his place when he was said to have overtaken Hamilton there outside of the track.
“I saw Verstappen leave the track and I thought ‘ooh, that’s dangerous what he was doing there'”, Michael Bleekemolen begins in conversation with RacingNews365 about the conscious overtaking action. “But on the other hand, they could also have overlooked it. I find this such a disgusting situation, because everything is always only half clear (what is or is not allowed, ed.).
–
This ‘violation’ by Verstappen was the least serious
– Michael Bleekemolen
–
The driver understands the frustrations of the fans completely: “That is a very big frustration, because after two or three times they should also have tapped Hamilton on the fingers with the statement ‘wait a minute, this can happen once, but it is not the intention. “They waited way too long to do that.”
The ‘nauseous’, says Bleekemolen, is also partly due to the fact that, in Bleekemolen’s eyes, Verstappen more often seems to be at the unfortunate end of the decisions: “He has already been disadvantaged a few times in certain matters and compared to those examples, I think this ‘violation’ is the least serious. After all, it is also slightly pushed off, so you can see it, “Bleekemolen continues. “So this should have been overlooked by the competition management, without question.”
The fact that Verstappen actually gave the place back to Hamilton immediately and without murmuring, according to the former F1 driver, it shows that Verstappen has changed at least compared to his early years: “I don’t know if he would do this in the same way in his first years. It was a special situation in that respect. He should have just stayed with it, then he could have started the discussion afterwards. split seconds be taken. “
– .
