Start crash, Hungaroring, 2021

Verstappen rues lost championship lead after being ‘taken out again by a Mercedes’

2021 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen said “freak moments” have cost him the lead in the drivers championship after taking just four points from the last two weekends.

Lewis Hamilton moved back into the lead in the drivers’ championship after finishing third in today’s race and is six points ahead of the Red Bull driver.

Verstappen finished 10th today after suffering significant damage in a first-lap crash. Hamilton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas ran into Lando Norris, who then spun into Verstappen’s car.

“Again, taken out by a Mercedes,” said Verstappen. “That’s not what you want.

“From there onwards I was missing my whole side of the car, the whole bargeboard area, and the floor was damaged as well. So it was almost impossible to drive, to be honest.

“I still tried my very best and I scored one point so it’s at least something but it is, of course, not what you want.”

Verstappen scored three points in Silverstone’s sprint qualifying race but took nothing away from Sunday after crashing out in a collision with Hamilton at the start. He said there had been “a lot of freak moments at the moment which have costs us a lot of points” in recent races.

“These moments, it doesn’t do anything, it’s just disappointing,” he said “But I know that when we go again after the break I will be there again, I’ll try my very best, and of course, I hope my car is going to be competitive, but we’ll find out.”

Verstappen acknowledged Mercedes have made gains with their car since the upgrade they introduced at the British Grand Prix.

“They are, of course, very quick, but we will never give up,” he said. “We have to focus on ourselves. We keep pushing and we’ll see where we are.”

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2021 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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48 comments on “Verstappen rues lost championship lead after being ‘taken out again by a Mercedes’”

  1. The stiffer tyre wall might not be helping either but that’s too early to get a decent read on

  2. That sums up my overall feeling of the 1st half of this season.

    Max never was lower than P2 when he took the checkered flag, got hit by a car or had a tyre blow. What more can you do.

    1. Looks like VB purposely taken out MV.

  3. It was a great season until last 2 races, something just doesn’t feels right when the team and the driver at the top is only there because their competitors has been taken out by none other than team on top and the penalties have been negligible.

  4. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    1st August 2021, 18:19

    He’s been very unlucky compared to Lewis; Imola, Baku, Silverstone and Hungary could have all been colossal point swings. But only 6 points in it, 2 fairly equal cars and drivers, this is going to be an epic second half to the season.

    1. Absolutely, for the sake of justice hopefully luck evens out, but thinking about it hamilton has always been generally lucky, except 2016 really, I hate that the one time a driver really deserves the title he gets unlucky, and all the other times lucky.

  5. Blaize Falconberger (@)
    1st August 2021, 18:33

    Verstappen is focussed on his own performance and doing his best, unlike his management. He doesn’t engage in wild conspiracies, unlike his most loonie fans. He doesn’t lose his shiz as the younger Max may have done. It’s great to see.

    Like Murray walker used to say – anything can happen in F1, and it usually does. Makes for exciting racing and an enertaining sport.

  6. We’re easily talking about a 60 points swing towards Lewis…
    2021 had all the ingredients to become the closest competition in over a decade…. it might just be decided by red flags and crashes. It would be a true shame

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      1st August 2021, 18:57

      If not for those, Verstappen would be 60 points ahead already and possibly more. So at least it’s more or less equal on points now meaning we still have a second half of the season to potentially see a battle for the WDC.

      1. Yes, it wouldn’t be close if it weren’t for this hamilton luck, or more verstappen bad luck really, however that can be put down to hamilton’s mistakes mostly, so verstappen, having driven better, should’ve had a margin.

        In any case like I said reliability and development in the 2nd half of the season are gonna matter a lot, if 1-2s happen there could be the chance to gain 10-11 points on the opponent, and I’d say bottas gives more of a chance to make them happen for mercedes than perez for red bull, usually mercedes is more reliable but red bull develops better, we’ll see.

        So far would be really disappointed by the season result, based on merit.

      2. @f1osaurus

        There is a good chance that Max has to take a 4th engine, so that might be another race where Lewis can extend his points. So unless Lewis has some actual bad luck for once, it might not become a real fight again.

        1. @Aapje I’ll be very surprised if any team is able to avoid engine penalties this season with (hopefully) 23 races and three sprints.

          1. @scbriml

            Sure, but both Max and Sergio have one less engine now, so are likely to have one more penalty.

  7. Valterri Bottas AKA Battery Bottler, is perhaps a perfect symbolism of Mercedes
    Where Ferrari had Ross Brawn, Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher among others where perhaps the most talented people in F1 occupied the same place at the same time. The stars aligned in a way only seen before in Liverpool by four boys.
    Then we have the Lance Stroll of F1 teams, where it’s more of hunky pieces of space debris wound up at the same place coincidentally but because Daddy Daimler has a blank cheque and they were promised the world Glorified Paddy Lowe, Lewhine CHeatlton and Battery Bottler lucked into a locked in advantage
    Getting exposed this season

    1. As my name shows Iam qualified to say Ive checked the stars and they show a conjunction of Uranus and a keyboard ;-)

    2. Probably the most “Dislike mercedes noobs” comment ever.

    3. “Dislike mercedes noobs this team is full of trash…….Dislike red bull noobs lap 69 austria 2019…….Dislike haas noobs cant design livery at all…….only ferrari for the win no p2 or p3…….”

  8. I find it alienating that he had to talk about being ‘again taken out by a Mercedes’. I wouldn’t have wished this incident on him but Silverstone was him turning in when he knew full well there was a car there. This time there was no need to try and make out it was deliberate in some way. And he can be grateful there was that strange restart that saved him 10 points.

    1. If it was Max turning in, and not Lewis oversteering into him, why was Lewis penalized for the collision?

      1. I know, strange eh, they don’t normally give penalties for first lap racing incidents, perhaps there was some back ground theatrics going on?

      2. Sympathy vote! I mean watch the overhead all down the straight (not after the contact).

    2. @zann

      I find it alienating to see all these ‘alternative facts’ posts, by people who don’t understand racing at all.

      1. Perhaps you’re just a bit tribal @aapje? An alien tribe, with a belief system that has Max looking in his mirror and magically not seeing a car right next to him :)

        1. @zann

          It is a simple fact that he was twice taken out by a Merc, who were penalized for doing so in both cases.

          If it makes me tribal to recognize basic facts, then I’m indeed tribal. Although, I prefer words like ‘sane.’

          1. okay, well it’s a ‘fact’ that Max hit the wall in Baku @aapje. Do you like that one? :)

            Meanwhile apparently when Toto tried to apologise for the Bottas incident, Christian just asked if he was going to pay for the damage, which is pretty ungracious is it not? Especially as apparently Checo wrecked his own engine by driving back to the pits with broken radiators.

          2. @zann

            We are talking about the last two races, but you are clearly grasping at straws.

          3. @zann, even your checo tale does not hold. The car was parked almost inmediatly after the accident.
            Enough visuals to show you are wrong. Why I ask myself. Why lying while everyone can check the facts

    3. Well, it was the 2nd race in a row in which he was taken out by a Mercedes.

      *sigh* I mean… Hamilton gets a 10 sec stop-go penalty and 2 penalty points from the Silverstone race incident but is not at fault. Just like Rosberg never won the 2016 WDC even though 385 > 380.

      You have to remember that just because you read something on the internet it does not make it fact.

      1. you have to remember that just because you support a particular driver doesn’t mean he can’t bring disaster on himself being too aggressive round the outside of a fast corner, or be a bit ungracious and bitchy trying to imply there was something unfair going on in an unlucky accident, without quite saying so.

        1. @zann

          There is the victim-blaming, as expected…

        2. @zann The driver that I would want on my team the most would be Norris. (Put him in a Merc or a RB and see how he does against either Ham or Ver) So me supporting a particular driver in this case doesn’t really work.
          I am an F1 fan though, not really a “driver” fan.
          The facts show that Ham was mainly, for the most part at fault and was penalized for it. I’ll go with facts and not your interpretation of the Silverstone crash.

  9. “Again, taken out by a Mercedes,” said Verstappen.
    Look who’s talking!
    The worst driver of the current formula 1!
    The dirtiest, the most aggressive, the most disrespectful!
    And above lies.
    It was a McLaren who crashed it, not a Mercedes.
    Pathetic.

    1. Verstappen worst driver? That’s ridiculous, what about mazepin? Raikkonen lately? Latifi?

    2. It was a McLaren who crashed it, not a Mercedes.

      A McLaren being pushed in Verstappen’s direction by a Mercedes. That’s better don’t you think?

    3. Say what you want. Enjoy Zandvoort if you can ever try it.

    4. @jorge-lardone
      He was taken out in 2 consecutive races because of the fault by a Mercedes driver, he is not lying.
      Stewards decisions in both cases agree with him.
      But the fact that you (choose to) ignore these and you still attack personally, it’s just an indication that you use Ad-Hominem arguments. The problem is within you and your bias, not to others. Better look at yourself in the mirror again before posting here.

      1. Some of us know what he always tends to say.

    5. try to look at it from an objective point of view, and you’ll see all your statements are not true.
      But I think that is the case really, being so biased you have a blurred vision

    6. With this type of statement, he then complains of uncomfortable questions at any press conference in the next few days. first they create controversy in the media and then they don’t want boring questions. Sad MV.

    7. @jorge-lardone

      Look who’s talking!
      The worst commenter of the current Lewisfans comment section.

      1. The biggest noob. Ever.

  10. Feels like Schumacher after the 2000 German Grand Prix. Hope Max can bounce back in similar fashion.

  11. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    1st August 2021, 19:56

    A shame but this was the race for Max to take notes watching Alonso and Hamilton duke it out – he can’t be upset watching that. He should just get together with his dad and enjoy watching it. Both incredible racers – surely they appreciate that.

    1. These two really showed how it’s done, didn’t they? Awesome defense, relentless attack . Brilliant racecraft.

  12. Nah, Jos and Max will think that Alonso was not aggressive enough and should have pushed Hamilton into the wall.

    1. Coventry Climax
      2nd August 2021, 1:39

      For one thing, that would have made the championship much more interesting.

      1. But it is more a Lewis fan line of thinking.

    2. Jos? That atrocious piece of trash?

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