Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he instinctively “knew” Max Verstappen had sparked controversy during the Mexican Grand Prix when the Mercedes driver saw a “plume of dust” ahead of him on track.
Verstappen was hit with two separate 10-second penalties for incidents with McLaren’s Lando Norris during the race in Mexico City, with the Red Bull driver’s conduct in wheel-to-wheel battle coming under scrutiny.
Lewis Hamilton ‘knew it was’ Max Verstappen at centre of Mexican GP controversy
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock
The first incident on Lap 10 saw Verstappen edge Norris off the circuit as the McLaren driver tried to pass him around the outside of Turn 4.
The second came just a few corners later, when Verstappen launched an aggressive move down Norris’s inside at the fast Turn 7, with both drivers taking to the run-off area and the Red Bull rejoining ahead.
Verstappen was forced to sit stationary for 20 seconds during his pit stop and ultimately came home sixth, his joint-worst classified result of the F1 2024 season.
Norris, meanwhile, finished second to the race-winning Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, reducing Verstappen’s World Championship lead to 47 points with four rounds remaining.
Hamilton, who came home fourth after prevailing in a battle with Mercedes team-mate George Russell, was embroiled in a series of on-track clashes with Verstappen over the course of their F1 2021 title battle.
That season saw the pair collide dramatically on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone – an incident which resulted in Verstappen being taken to hospital for precautionary checks – before they came to blows later that season at Monza, where Verstappen’s car ended up mounting Hamilton’s Mercedes following a touch at the first chicane.
Verstappen’s driving was also criticised after the late-season races in Brazil, where he was accused of running Hamilton off the road, and Saudi Arabia, where he was found by the FIA stewards to have “braked suddenly and significantly” while duelling over the lead with the Mercedes driver.
Verstappen was ultimately crowned World Champion for the first time in highly controversial circumstances at the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi, with Hamilton suffering the longest winless run of his career before returning to the top step of the podium after 945 days at Silverstone this year.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after Sunday’s race in Mexico, Hamilton conceded that he had not yet seen the clashes between Verstappen and Norris on Lap 10.
Yet he claimed that he instinctively “knew it must have been” Verstappen involved when he saw a cloud of dust ahead on track.
Put to him that Verstappen’s second incident with Norris was similar to his incident with the Red Bull man at Brazil 2021, Hamilton replied: “I’ve not seen it. I could see a group of cars ahead and I saw a plume of smoke, of dust.”
Bursting into laughter, Hamilton then added: “And I knew it was [him]. I knew it must have been [him]. [I was] like: ‘For sure, that’s him!’”
Hamilton has long been a vocal critic of Verstappen’s behaviour on track, commenting in the aftermath of their battle at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that the Red Bull driver is “over the limit, for sure.”
He said in Jeddah: “I have raced a lot of drivers in my 28 years of racing, I have come across a lot of characters. There’s a few that are over the limit, the rules don’t apply.
“He’s over the limit for sure. I have avoided collision on so many occasions with the guy. I don’t mind being the one who does that because you get to live another day.”
Verstappen found his racing conduct under the microscope entering the Mexican Grand Prix after Norris was hit with a five-second penalty for overtaking the Red Bull driver off the circuit in the closing laps of the previous race in the United States.
McLaren saw an appeal against Norris’s penalty rejected on Friday in Mexico.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com on Thursday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – before McLaren’s appeal against Norris’s penalty was lodged – Hamilton accused Verstappen of exploiting “a grey area” in F1’s racing rules over the years.
F1’s so-called racing guidelines are expected to revised, with governing body the FIA expected to present tweaks influenced by the United States GP incidents to the drivers at next month’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Hamilton said: “It’s always been a grey area. That’s why he’s got away with it for so long. They probably need to make some adjustments, for sure.
“Also, we do have inconsistencies weekend in, weekend out, obviously, depending on which stewards are there.
“And as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas. We look at other global sports – they have full-time refs, for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.
“I experienced it many times with Max and you shouldn’t be able to just launch the car up the inside over your head and then go off and still hold your position.”