McLaren boss BLAMES Hamilton incidents for Norris-Verstappen collision

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has blamed the handling of previous incidents involving Lewis Hamilton for the late drama which unfolded at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.

The final 10 laps at the Red Bull Ring delivered some thrilling action between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, as the top two in the drivers' standings fought it out for the lead.

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In what had been a back-and-forth battle for P1, the duel reached its climax on Lap 64, with both cars coming together as Norris attacked the outside of his championship rival in a bid to pull off a stunning overtake.

Their cars touched, causing punctures for both, effectively ruling out their chances of clinching a precious victory.

Verstappen was able to continue after a quick pit stop to finish P5, but Norris was forced to retire, thus falling further behind his Red Bull counterpart in the drivers' standings.

Andrea Stella delivers Verstappen collision verdict

Mercedes star George Russell was the lucky beneficiary of the incident, stealing in to take his second career victory ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz.

However, speaking to Sky Sports after exiting the McLaren pit wall, team boss Stella brought up Russell's team-mate Hamilton, claiming that previous on-track racing between him and Verstappen when fighting for the championship in 2021 was not handled correctly by the FIA in the past, leading to incidents like today.

“I see it that the entire population in the world would know who is responsible except for a group of people, but the problem behind it, is that if you don’t address these things honestly, they would come back," said the Italian.

"They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past, when there was some fights with Lewis, that needed to be punished in a harsher way.

"Like this, you learn how to race in a certain way which we can consider fair and square.

“The fact is that we have so much respect for Red Bull, so much respect for Max. They don’t need to do this - it’s a way to almost compromise your reputation. Why would you do that?

“I think the stewards found that Max was fully to blame in this episode, so it’s not about racing in a driver’s way, it’s about racing within the regulations and the regulations must be enforced in a way that is effective because when a car is out of the race as a consequence of this accident, the punishment needs to be proportionate to the outcome.”

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