Hill accuses Verstappen of deliberate crash into Hamilton at Monza

Damon Hill has accused Max Verstappen of deliberately crashing into Lewis Hamilton during Sunday’s explosive Italian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo claimed McLaren’s first victory in almost nine years on another afternoon of high drama at Monza’sTempleofSpeed.LandoNorris,21,tookacareer-best second as McLaren secured a fairytale one-two finish. Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas drove from last to third.

Ricciardo’s superb lightsto-flag victory, however, was overshadowed by yet another flash point in this most remarkable of Formula One seasons.

It arrived on lap 26 of 53. Pole-sitter Verstappen, running in a net-fourth position – after he was beaten to the opening bend by Ricciardo followed by a woeful 11-second pit-stop – saw Hamilton emerge from the pits ahead of him.

With Verstappen arriving for the Variante Del Rettifilo at 225 mph, Hamilton, still getting up to speed, moved to his left to cover off his rival – but the Dutchman refused to down tools. Verstappen ran out of room, on to the kerbs, and into Hamilton’s Mercedes – the floor of his Red Bull crushing his rival’s machine. Both men were out of the race and V er st a pp en retained his five-point championship lead.

Hamilton and Verstappen were summoned to the stewards and the verdict was Verstappen was “predominantly to blame”. A three-place grid penalty at the Russian Grand Prix on September 26 and two penalty points his punishment.

“Looking at the replay of Max on Lewis, there was no way he was going to make that work,” said Hill, the 1996 world champion.

“The only conclusion is he might have been thinking ‘I have to take him out’. I don’t want to think that of any driver, but I think it was either an error of judgement or a calculated move to collide with Lewis.

“It is strong and I don’t like the idea that I’m accusing anyone of doing that, but he’s got a points advantage and this was a race which Mercedes was supposed to win.”

Hamilton’s Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff, was also critical of Verstappen. “One could see it as a tactical foul,” said Wolff.

“We don’ t want to have situations in the future where one takes the other out, to avoid losing.”

The crash arrived just nine weeks after Hamilton’s opening-lap collision with Verstappen at Silverstone. Hamilton served a 10-second punishment but won the race.