Damon Hill believes Max Verstappen’s aggressive attempt to overtake Lewis Hamilton during the Miami Grand Prix Sprint was a “good attempt”, even though he forced the Mercedes driver off track.
The pair finished sixth and seventh, respectively, after Red Bull introduced several upgrades to the RB22 that helped narrow their gap to the leaders.
The duel also provided a bit of a spark in an otherwise lacklustre start to Red Bull’s 2024 campaign. Ferrari came into this weekend as clear favourites, while McLaren have also closed the gap between themselves and Mercedes.
Damon Hill says Max Verstappen made a ‘good attempt’ at passing Lewis Hamilton during the Miami Sprint
Verstappen and Hamilton’s battle in the Miami Sprint saw echoes of their past clashes when Verstappen went for P6 on Lap 8/19. Spotting a gap down the inside at Turn 11, he made his move, but both ended up off track as a result.
Hamilton tried to hang on around Verstappen’s outside, so the Red Bull driver eased off the brakes to ensure he made the apex first. But doing so meant Verstappen would not stay on the track and ultimately had to yield the place back to Hamilton to avoid drawing a penalty.
Hill didn’t see any problem with Verstappen using “all the road” during his attempt in Miami. The 1996 champion instead framed it as Verstappen trying to make use of his “inimitable style” right from the start.
Hill said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra: “You’d have to say it was a good pass attempt by Max. I mean, he actually got down inside, and it was almost as if everyone else was going too slowly.
“They were sort of concertinaing up and almost as if Lewis had kind of backed out of it. And Max just went for the gap. And famously, in his own inimitable style, goes very deep and uses all the road.”
Hamilton wasn’t pushing too hard into Turn 11 when Verstappen saw an opening, with Mercedes pair Antonelli and George Russell battling ahead in P4. But Verstappen still had to give back position after leaving track limits.
The moment didn’t end up impacting their races significantly though. Not long after, Verstappen found another opportunity at Turn 17 on Lap 10 and this time stayed within limits, pulling ahead as Hamilton opted against defending again.
