Hamilton praises halo device after Verstappen crash

FORMULA One’s governing body will investigate the Italian Grand Prix crash between title contenders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton because it was “unusual”, according to race director Michael Masi.

The Australian said that although the collision was relatively low-speed, the FIA’s safety experts would still take a look.

The crash had Verstappen’s Red Bull lift up off a kerb and land on Hamilton’s Mercedes with the inside of a rear wheel hitting the seven-time world champion’s helmet through the protective halo.

“Incidents that are different, so it’s not necessarily high G impacts or anything like that, but are unusual, we do look at,” said Masi.

“Our safety department does look at them in detail, investigate and see what we can learn and what we can improve for the future.

“That’s how we have a whole lot of the safety features that we have today, and will continue to evolve into the future.

“We are already collecting all of the data, so we have all of the information and that will all go to our safety department together with any photographs and anything else we have along the way.”

The Monza stewards blamed championship leader Verstappen and handed the Dutch 23-year-old a threeplace grid drop for the next race in Russia.

Hamilton said it had been a shock to be hit on the head and the titanium ring had saved his life.

“I’m so, so grateful that I’m still here. I feel incredibly blessed. I feel like someone was watching over me today,” said the Briton.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the halo had saved Hamilton’s life and Red Bull boss Christian Horner agreed the device, made mandatory in 2018 to considerable opposition from some drivers, had done its job.

“It was a very awkward accident and you could see Max’s car ride up the Mercedes and I think without the halo there would’ve been no protection for the weight of that wheel coming down on top of Lewis,” said Horner.

“I think the halo has again demonstrated its purpose in Formula One.”

FIA president Jean Todt posted on Twitter a photograph of the Red Bull on top of the Mercedes with the comment “Glad the halo was there”.

Several F1 drivers have credited the device for saving their lives, including Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and former Haas racer Romain Grosjean.

“I wasn’t for the halo some years ago but I think it's the greatest thing that we brought to Formula One,” he said after the device shielded his head when his car penetrated the barriers in fiery crash in Bahrain last year.

Meanwhile, the title battle between Hamilton and Verstappen is likely to stay full-on to the end of the season, said Formula One boss Ross Brawn.

Brawn, a former Honda and Mercedes team boss and ex-Ferrari technical head, said fans were sure to be split on who was to blame.

“It’s clear both drivers could have avoided it,” he said in his regular postrace column on the official Formula 1 website.

“Ultimately, I think it’s another consequence of two guys going headto-head and not wanting to give an inch.

“Personally, I wouldn’t say it has changed the dynamic. You’ve got two cockerels in the farmyard at the moment and we are seeing the consequence of it.

“I don’t think either will back off at any moment for the rest of the year but I hope the championship is won on the track not in the barriers or the stewards’ room.”

This was the second big clash between the two in the space of five races after earlier wheel-to-wheel incidents.

At the British Grand Prix in July, Verstappen crashed at speed and ended up in hospital for checks while Hamilton went on to win in front of his home fans.

That race, like Monza, followed an experimental Saturday sprint qualifying race and Brawn saw “plenty of positives”.

“It shook up the order and led to a slightly evolved grid, which in turn created a different dynamic in the race,” he said.

“I think it offers a lot – and we still have a track to try it on.

“Then we’ll make an objective assessment and work out a way forward.”

He said the Italian Grand Prix also delivered “the strongest ever weekend streaming numbers we’ve ever seen on our OTT platform F1TV”.

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