Ted Kravitz takes aim at Red Bull after Max Verstappen’s Lewis Hamilton collision

Max Verstappen and Ted Kravitz.

Sky F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz claimed “racing incident” is the term Red Bull go to when Max Verstappen caused a crash, after his Lewis Hamilton shunt in Hungary.

Mercedes undercut Verstappen with Hamilton after the first round of pit-stops in Hungary, much to Verstappen’s frustration, an irritation which only grew when he was unable to make his way back past Hamilton until the seven-time World Champion peeled into the pit-lane for his second stop.

Ted Kravitz’s Red Bull dig after Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton crash

Still behind Hamilton in the final stint, Verstappen returned for another attack, though this time it ended in contact as Verstappen sent it down the inside of Hamilton at Turn 1, locked-up and clipped the front-right wheel of Hamilton’s Mercedes, sending him briefly airborne. Verstappen went on to finish P5.

The stewards investigated the collision, which Hamilton deemed a “racing incident”, with the stewards indeed taking no further action.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also reached for that term in his verdict.

“I would say a racing incident to be honest with you,” Horner told Kravitz.

“I would be disappointed if anything were to come of that.”

Nonetheless, Kravitz had made his mind up that the crash was Verstappen’s fault, claiming Red Bull break out the “racing incident” description when they know Verstappen is to blame.

“First of all, they’re calling it a racing incident, which is what Red Bull do when it’s Max Verstappen’s fault,” said Kravitz on his ‘Ted’s Notebook’ programme.

“But everyone else is calling it Max Verstappen’s fault with the last bit, outbraking himself, and would have gone straight on had Lewis not turned in.

“Lewis did turn in…well, Lewis didn’t turn in, he was there, and then Max went over his wheel.”

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To complete the circle of blame, Verstappen pointed the finger at Hamilton for their collision.

“I went for a move that was fully on,” he told Sky F1.

“But then in the middle of the braking zone, when I’m already committed of course to the move, he suddenly just keeps warping right, and if I wouldn’t have turned while braking straight, I would have made contact with him.

“So at one point yeah naturally I lock up, because he just keeps on turning to the right.

“People obviously made a lot about what happened in Austria, which is not correct, blah, blah, blah, but that’s on the initial move and then you just brake straight. You hold your wheel quite straight. And I felt like now it was not on the initial movement, afterwards, during the braking zone, he keeps turning right.

“You cannot do that when someone has committed to the inside. That’s why I locked up, because otherwise, we would have collided anyway because he would have just turned in on me.

“I don’t think that was wrong. I went for a move that was fully on. I don’t think I braked too late.”

Hamilton would go on to complete the Hungary podium, the 200th of his Formula 1 career.

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