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Max Verstappen has lashed out at fans who were supposedly seen burning Lewis Hamilton's merchandise at the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP.
There were reports of incidents similar to what happened at the 2022 F1 Austrian GP where multiple Orange Army fans were caught on video burning Hamilton's merchandise at the track.
When questioned what his views were on such fans, Max Verstappen called these acts disgusting to watch and said that it should not happen. The Red Bull driver did, however, also highlight that there were other fans as well that were cheering for all drivers.
Verstappen said:
“Yeah, that’s of course not acceptable. I mean, these individuals… No, I definitely don’t agree with that because that’s just disgusting. But overall, I think the majority of the fans which were also cheering a lot, I think throughout the race and also on the podium for every driver, I think that’s how it should be. And yeah, those videos, or video, of burning merch I think that’s disgusting.”
Earlier in July, fans were seen performing similar acts at the Red Bull Ring, which was followed by accusations of rampant harassment among the crowd. F1, its drivers, and its teams were quick to admonish such fans and plead for others to maintain decency in the stands.
We were competitive but Ferrari chose the wrong tires: Max Verstappen
As Max Verstappen made his way through the field to win the race, the driver was asked whether Red Bull was comfortably the fastest car on the grid in Hungary. The driver felt otherwise as he pointed out that Ferrari too had very strong speed and if it wasn't for the wrong choice of tires they could have won.
He said:
“I think we were competitive. But I think also Ferrari chose the wrong tyres in their final stint before they then pitted again. Because before that I think they were quite strong as well. And yeah, it was just being on the right tyre, you know. I think also the call we had in the beginning, to be on the soft, was a bit safer, you know, to stay out of trouble and have a bit of grip.”
The hard tires had a rather questionable performance during the race and many teams suffered after choosing those tires. Max Verstappen was asked whether for Red Bull there was ever a discussion of using hard tires in the race. He admitted that there were certainly discussions, but the team changed its mind before the race, saying:
“Yeah, we were planning to start on the Hard tyre, but then I went to the grid on the Soft tyres, and I was already struggling for grip, so I was like ‘no way we’re going to start at the Hards’. So, it’s also credit to the team, because we of course planned the strategy around that, with the Hard tyre, and then we were like okay, we were switching it to a Soft, we had a lot of confidence in just changing it around, then that’s what we did.”
Max Verstappen has now won 8 races in the season and holds an 80-points advantage over his closest challenger in the championship.
