Well the message from the FIA is now clear Max, you can punt your rival off the circuit and get minimal penalty for it.
Nah, you're making it sound like a re-run of the start of the Suzuka '90 GP (that was proper shunting). I've been following F1 since the late 70s and, for me this was nothing more than a racing incident. Neither driver was going to concede any ground (they were both wheel-to-wheel for the previous corners) and both were determined to finish that first lap in the lead but, at the end of the day, Max left too much room going into Copse which I think Hamilton was more than entitled to go for. Hamilton was nearly half way up the length of Max and any other driver would have conceded that to Lewis. Max didn't. Racing incident. That the stewards only gave a 10 second penalty meant that they also saw this as a racing incident.
Coulthard and Webber are both Red Bull toadies. They are both paid by Red Bull Racing to take the rich and famous around race tracks in the two seaters, so anything that they come up with, should be taken with a pinch of salt. You're obviously not a Hamilton fan but if overtaking at Copse is such a bad overtaking corner, how come Hamilton had no problems getting past LeClerc in a replica manoeuvre?If it was a racing incident, then why did the stewards give any penalty at all? I can give tons of examples of first lap collisions where the stewards deemed a racing incident - no penalties were awarded. Hamilton was deemed guilty to have caused the crash, hence why they dished out a penalty to him. It was Max's corner, he gave Lewis room and unfortunately Lewis saw a gap which didn't exist and hit him. The overhead shots clearly show this, Copse is such a tight and fast corner you have to approach with a wide entry, Lewis was never going to make the corner being behind Max. Brundle, Coulthard and Webber on air all put the blame on Lewis. Two spectators at Copse were also badly injured by the debris of the Red Bull, that hasn't been mentioned much by the Mercedes PR team.
It's just a shame, because it ruined what would have been a fantastic race.
Sorry Keith but the difference between the moves was that Verstappen was involved in the first one! I'm not Hamilton's greatest fan but, fwiw, I think that the stewards have now opened the floodgates and that every single "racing incident" will have to be view as "blame" against one or other driver. F1 is being spoiled by intervention. Let the drivers get on with it.The difference between the moves on Max and Charlie is that Lewis got the car to the apex of the corner when passing Charlie.