Max Verstappen says Lewis Hamilton was ‘scared’ after the Formula 1 rivals nearly collided during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Lando Norris held off McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the closing stages of a tense race to claim victory at the Hungaroring on Sunday.
The Brit has closed the gap to his championship rival to just nine points as F1 heads on its summer break, returning at the end of August with the Dutch Grand Prix.
Further back, it was a race to forget for Verstappen who took the chequered flag in ninth place, embarrassingly finishing behind Liam Lawson in Red Bull’s junior team.
To make matters worse for the four-time champion, he was the subject of a post-race investigation for potentially forcing Hamilton off the track on lap 30.
The Red Bull attempted a bold overtake on the Ferrari down the inside of turn 4, narrowly avoiding contact, with Hamilton seemingly taking avoiding action by running wide at the corner, which in turn allowed Verstappen to get past.
Hamilton would go on to finish 12th, while the incident was noted by the stewards who, somewhat unusually, decided to settle the matter after the race.
Verstappen wasn’t impressed to discover the stewards were investigating, telling Viaplay: ‘I’m actually pretty disappointed I have to go to the stewards after the race. Just analyse it in the race.
‘I just set my nose next to him [Hamilton], he gets scared and goes off track.’
Earlier on the weekend, the Dutchman had been under investigation after throwing a towel out his car in a bizarre incident, with the stewards later issuing a formal warning to Red Bull.
‘No one was really sure if we touched going into the corner but we didn’t touch and now it’s up to the stewards, what they think of that,’ he later told Sky Sports.
‘But from my side, it was very difficult weekend and the race was the same, very low grip and there was not much we could make out of it.’
Hamilton for his part didn’t seemed fussed about the matter on what was a terrible weekend for the seven-time champion, saying: ‘I don’t really remember to be honest.
‘I saw last minute he was quite close to my right wheel, so I tried to avoid a collision.’
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