‘He knew what was going to happen’ - The views of Hamilton and Verstappen

Hamilton and Verstappen retired at mid-distance in Sunday’s race at Monza following a dramatic collision as they battled for position at the first chicane.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton was trying to defend his position as he emerged from the pitlane as the pair went wheel-to-wheel on the run to Turn 1.

Verstappen attempted to go all the way around the outside of Hamilton and take the inside line into Turn 2, but jumped over the sausage kerbs and was launched on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes.

Both drivers ended up beached in the gravel trap at the exit of the first chicane, with Verstappen’s car stuck on Hamilton’s.

The incident, which is under investigation by the stewards, followed a wheel-banging moment on the first lap as the pair squabbled over second place at the second chicane.

Hamilton backed out on that occasion and was forced to skip over the run-off, and the Briton felt Verstappen should have reacted in the same way in their later collision.

“It’s exactly the same scenario that happened in Turn 4 where I went around the outside, was in exactly the same position, but I gave way - and that’s racing” Hamilton told Sky Sports.

“He just didn’t want to give way today and he knew going into Turn 2 what was going to happen. He knew that he was going over the kerbs but he still did it.

“We’ll speak to the stewards, but… I don’t really know what else to say.”

Hamilton was convinced he left Verstappen enough room and admitted he was taken by surprise by the collision.

“I was racing as hard as I could, finally got past Lando and was in the lead, so they pitted me,” Hamilton said.

“The pitstop was obviously slow, lost around a second and a bit. I came out, I saw that Daniel came past and Daniel was coming.

“I made sure I left a car’s width on the outside for him and was obviously ahead. I was ahead going into Turn 2 and then all of a sudden he was on top of me.”

In frightening scenes, Verstappen’s car was launched airborne and appeared to make contact with the Halo on Hamilton’s Mercedes.

“I’m a little bit stiff,” Hamilton revealed. “A bit sore in my neck to be honest because it landed on my head. But I’ll be okay.”

There was a different version of events from the Red Bull camp, with Verstappen immediately coming over team radio to say: “That’s what happens when you don’t leave space.”

Speaking to Sky after the race, the Dutchman stood by his view, adding: “We realised it was going to be close going into Turn 1.

“He cut across already on the white line and I had to go onto the green part to not touch and went around the outside. Of course he realised that I was going for it, so he just kept on squeezing me and I wanted to work with him, because I wanted to race.

“Of course people automatically start talking about Silverstone, these things happen, and it wasn’t nice at the time but I think we are all professional enough to get on with it and keep on racing each other.

“I didn’t expect him to just keep on squeezing, squeezing, squeezing, because he didn’t need to. Even if he had left just a car’s width, we would have raced out of Turn 2 anyway. I think he would have probably still been in front.

“But he just kept on pushing me wider, wider, wider and then at one point there was nowhere to go. He just pushed me onto the sausage kerb and that’s, at the end of the day, why we touched because the rear tyre bumped up to the tyre.”

Asked whether he should have taken to the escape road as Hamilton had done earlier, Verstappen replied: “Well I don’t think you can judge them exactly the same, because he just kept on squeezing and squeezing and I was a lot alongside him.

“You need two people to work together to make the corner when we are fighting for position. Unfortunately we touched.

"If one guy is not willing to work, then what can you do, it’s not going to happen.”