Verstappen And Alonso React After Hamilton Upsets Them In FP2

Saturday, 18 May 2024 at 12:44

World Champions Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen reacted to Lewis Hamilton's impeding during free practice sessions ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend.

After a one-year break, F1 returned to Imola Circuit this weekend. It is also the first normal Grand Prix weekend in the last three, two of which were sprint formats.

This means drivers have three practice sessions at their disposal, which tend to be calmer. Still, Friday was full of tense and close moments.

While seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton enjoyed his upgraded Mercedes, he unfortunately impeded Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen multiple times on their flying laps.

The Spanish driver obviously had enough of it as he fumed on his team radio: "Hamilton thinks that he is alone on the track. It's the second lap he does it. Turn 12 and now Turn Seven."

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Concerning his incident with the Mercedes driver, the triple World Champion told the media after the second practice session:

"It's not the first time. Of course, you try to always stay calm about it, but it happened again."

"On the other hand, I don't want to really talk about it too much because that's not our issue. Today, we were just severely off the pace. That we need to "ix."

Red Bull also brought some upgrades to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend. However, the Austrian team couldn't make them work and struggled greatly compared to Ferrari, McLaren, and even Mercedes.

This wouldn't improve the Dutchman's mood, so when Hamilton impeded him, it was like the final thing that made him snap. The 39-year-old Mercedes driver shared his point of view as he told the media:

"I was on a cool-down lap, I thought I was well clear. And all of a sudden, he was right on me, but ultimately it was my mistake. I tried to apologise but he was too frustrated already."