Max Verstappen’s father ‘enjoyed’ seeing Lewis Hamilton get lapped by his son while Red Bull boss jokes ‘he should have retired last year’

Lewis Hamilton had a weekend to forget at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, but for rivals Red Bull, it turned out to be one to savour.

Hamilton had one of the worst races of his Formula 1 career as he finished 13th, and his 2021 title rivals found some enjoyment in his misfortune.


Hamilton had a weekend from hell in Italy

AFP


While things could have hardly gone better for Verstappen and Red Bull

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Red Bull went on to collect maximum points in Sunday’s feature race, with reigning world champion Max Verstappen finishing ahead of teammate Sergio Perez.

It was a superb weekend for the Milton Keynes-based team, who saw their main title rivals, Ferrari, end up with both cars off the track, and championship leader Charles Leclerc could only climb back to sixth.

The title looked like it may be heading back to Italy for the first time since 2007 thanks to Leclerc’s rapid start and Verstappen’s two reliability-inforced retirements, but things have quickly changed.

And there was even more joy to be had in Christian Horner’s Red Bull garage, with last year’s title rival, Hamilton, humiliatingly lapped by Verstappen.

The two battled it out last season in one of the sport’s most astonishing title fights, but now the Mercedes is nowhere near the front-running cars.

This year’s aerodynamic rule changes have left Hamilton well off the pace, in a race where he couldn’t even get past Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri, the sister car to Red Bull’s challenger.