Ricciardo blames Verstappen’s pent-up anger towards Hamilton led to crash

Daniel Ricciardo thinks Max Verstappen’s anger made him crash into Lewis Hamilton at the Italian GP.

Verstappen and Hamilton crashed into each other on Lap 26 at Monza. The collision ended both their races, and the end result was Verstappen’s car on top of Hamilton’s. If this season has shown us anything, it is the fact that the two title rivals don’t want to let the other win. For that, they will do anything, including not giving space to each other.

McLaren driver Ricciardo gave his thoughts on the Hamilton-Verstappen rivalry. Speaking on the Pardon My Take podcast, the Australian driver addressed the crash. Ricciardo thinks Verstappen’s anger made him crash into Hamilton.

“I know Max, like I was teammates with him for a few years. He’s a competitor, and he’ll leave it on the track and that’s it,” Ricciardo said.

Ricciardo ends McLaren F1 drought as Hamilton & Verstappen crash out: 2021 Italian  GP report - Motor Sport Magazine
Ricciardo (pictured) gave his thoughts on the Hamilton-Verstappen crash. Source: motorsportmagazine.com

“Obviously, I guess he still probably carried a little bit of, maybe like frustration, or anger, or emotion from Silverstone. So, maybe that was the reason he was like, ‘Stuff this, I’m just going to walk away.’”

Questionable actions

Ricciardo also gave his opinion on Verstappen apparently ignoring Hamilton and not checking on him after the crash. The Dutchman walked away from the crash while Hamilton was still in his car. However, the Honey Badger said Verstappen wasn’t in the wrong, and stated that the Red Bull driver walked past after seeing Hamilton attempting to reverse

“I think there was things like Lewis trying to reverse and get out,” Ricciardo said.

“So, look, I’ve already probably got too involved, but maybe Max saw that and was like, ‘Okay, Lewis is fine.’ For sure we’ve got rivalries, and for sure we don’t all get on the best.

“But if we had a crash and we knew that guy was injured, 100% hand on heart, I believe all of us would go and try and help. If we knew it was something serious, we wouldn’t just turn our backs,” he concluded.

Read more: New photo evidence emerges to prove Hamilton was guilty for Italian GP crash rather than Verstappen

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