“What a joke”; “Sore loser”- Fans react as Helmut Marko gives his verdict on Max Verstappen-Lewis Hamilton incident from Hungary

Formula 1's latest outing at the Hungaroring saw the two titans, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, clash for the final podium place. A fascinating battle ensued, with the latter ultimately coming out ahead. Helmut Marko recently had his say on the matter, and fans are now reacting to the Red Bull Racing director's controversial comment.

What began as hard racing between Hamilton and Verstappen after the second round of pit spots, turned out into one of the more controversial moves of the 2024 season so far. Amid an overtaking maneuver on lap 63, the fast-approaching RBR driver was unable to scrape through on time, thereby locking up his front wheels and torpedoing in the path of Hamilton on turn 1. This resulted in a collision between the two drivers.

After the race, stewards investigated the entire episode in detail, ruling it to be a racing incident. Following the unfortunate clash, Helmut Marko gave a controversial statement in an interview with Speedweek.com.

"I talked to Verstappen about it: Certainly, the wheels of his car locked up under braking, but he would have made that corner, so there was no question of him no longer having control of his car. Max had the nose in front, but Hamilton just turned in and everyone could see what happened," Marko said in defense of the Dutch driver.

This statement was shared by a Red Bull Racing and Formula 1 fan page on X:

The aforementioned comments have received a lot of criticism from fans since then.

"Sore loser," commented an angry fan.

"What a joke," wrote another one.

"When both fronts lock up, you lose all steering... Hamilton turned because it's a corner," replied a fan, explaining the situation.

"He’s got a point, it was crazy to expect Lewis to turn the corner on the racing line," a fan commented in a sarcastic way.

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Max Verstappen set to receive a 10-place grid penalty at the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen at the Hungarian GP (Image via Getty)

Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen is set to receive a 10-place grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix. The penalty will be implemented for using a new Power Unit (PU) beyond his allocation.

After a disappointing outing at the Hungaroring, Verstappen is getting ready to face another setback at Spa this weekend. The Dutchman has exhausted his allocation of PUs for the 2024 Formula 1 season.

“I’m sure at some point we’ll end up taking an extra engine for Max, it’s just a question of when you choose strategically to do that. So we’ll work with Honda on that, but inevitably, we will take a penalty at some point," Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing's Team Principal explained during a recent media interaction.

With Spa being ideal for overtaking, a report from RacingNews365 claims that the Austrian outfit will likely be taking the grid penalty at the upcoming Belgian GP. This move, if done, will increase the challenges for Max Verstappen on Race Day.