Formula 1 News: Verstappen smoked Hamilton without contact
Defending World Driving Champion Max Verstappen schooled Lewis Hamilton at the Hungaroring’s high-speed Turn 4 midway through the F1 Hungarian GP. The British media thought Verstappen hit Hamilton and drove him off the track, but that was not the case.
The investigation into Max Verstappen’s pass on Lewis Hamilton has resulted in no further action, as the stewards deemed that the Dutchman had not forced the Ferrari driver off the road at Turn 4.
Max Verstappen gets past Lewis Hamilton. I’m pretty sure it’s not legal to divebomb someone off the track.#F1 | #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/ZpAvNATrtN
— Ryan Erik King (@RyanErikKing) August 3, 2025
Verstappen went for the inside line at the high-speed left-hander, and Hamilton subsequently went off the road and drove across the run-off. The British media immediately got their panties in a knot and thought Verstappen pushed Hamilton off.
Hamilton declined to attend the hearing in the stewards’ room knowing he had simply run out of talent, and the stewards’ report revealed that the Ferrari representative stated that Hamilton indeed chose to take evasive action – with no contact between the two.
Verstappen contended that he was willing to offer more space had Hamilton not left the track.
The report read: “The driver of Car 1 [Verstappen] stated during the hearing that he had gained some momentum on Car 44 [Hamilton] out of Turn 3 with fresher tires and used this momentum to make a move on the inside into Turn 4.
“He further elaborated that he was in full control of his car and could have stayed further to the inside to leave space for Car 44 on the exit. However he said, as Car 44 had gone off track, he elected to use all of the track on the exit.
“The team representative of Car 44 confirmed that there was no contact between both cars and further stated that the driver of Car 44 chose not to attempt to remain on track.
“Taking all this into account, the Stewards determine that there was no contact and that the incident does not qualify as forcing another car off track despite the ambitious nature of the overtaking attempt and take no further action.”
“The thing is that nothing happened,” Verstappen said. “We didn’t even touch. That’s the thing. So, for me, it’s a bit difficult to understand why we have the investigation after the race.
“Lewis was not there, but we explained our side of the story. I don’t think Lewis actually felt a lot for it, because if he really felt something for it, then of course he’s there in the stewards’ room.
“I think both of us didn’t have the best of weekends anyway. That’s just that one little thing. The more important thing is that we have to look at our performance, which was not good.
“I went for a move up the inside, because it’s a fast corner, but with downforce, you’re a bit more under control anyway.
“I think he realized very late that I was up the inside there. So then he turned out of it a little bit and then went off the track. And that was it. We didn’t touch. Nothing happened.”
“Unfortunately, the whole weekend wasn’t good for us and we need to understand why that was. It has been quite tough as we got stuck in between cars during the race and struggled for grip.
“Although the high speed was okay, the low and medium speed wasn’t good. There are a lot of things to understand as the car has been difficult all weekend and we couldn’t turn things around unfortunately.
“Like we always do, we will analyze everything and take learnings from the weekend to find more performance as we go into Zandvoort. Ultimately, this weekend hasn’t gone to our liking, but it is now summer break and I can enjoy time with family and friends and not think too much about the racing side of things.
“There are many more races left and we can look to do better after the break. We want to aim to be more consistent and always try and even though it was a disappointing result we will keep our head up.”
