Halo There Lewis: Halo Safety Device Saves Hamilton after Airborne Crash with Verstappen

In a race which saw Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren pick up their first win in a long while, the two championship leaders, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, took each other out of the race in spectacular fashion.

Hamilton’s exit from a slow pit stop saw the Briton come out right in front of Verstappen going into the left-right chicane at the end of the start-finish straight.

The Dutch driver attempted to pass around the outside of turn one before trying to squeeze his Red Bull on the inside of turn 2, but hit the kerbs, sending his Red Bull out of control and airborne into Hamilton’s path.

The rear right wheel crushed the top of the Mercedes and, if not for the ‘halo’ safety device, surely would have severely injured Hamilton.

Post-race, the stewards concluded that Max Verstappen was ‘predominantly to blame’ for the crash and he was handed a three-place grid penalty for the upcoming Russian GP.

F1 Race Director Michael Masi, speaking to Sky F1, stated that: “the steward’s assessment was that Lewis effectively had the corner and that Max had other options. We saw on numerous occasions today, drivers in similar types of situations took the bumps beyond turn 2 and re-joined the track. So, it was sort of a combination of those matters in handing down their decisions. It wasn’t wholly Max’s fault, but he was more at fault than Lewis at that particular occasion.”

During the race, a few cars took to the kerbs in similar scenarios to avoid crashes, most notably Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the same corner trying to avoid Mercedes Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez also jumped the kerbs at the chicane at turns 4 and 5, being handed a 5-second penalty after the stewards deemed he had gained an unfair advantage in doing so.

Prior to the awarding of the penalty, Verstappen argued that the incident could’ve been avoided if Hamilton had given him enough space. “I didn’t expect him to just keep squeezing, squeezing, squeezing because he didn’t even need to”, the Dutchman said.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff called the incident a ‘tactical foul’, telling Sky Sports F1: “he probably knew that if Lewis stays ahead, that is the race win possibly.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner saw the crash as a ‘racing incident’, but added that, from Red Bull’s perspective, Lewis closed Max too much in the run into turn 2. However, he showed his praise for the ‘halo’, stating: “the most important thing today is that the halo has done its job because it was an awkward accident. Thankfully, no one was hurt.”

With this penalty, Verstappen will start in Russia three places lower than he qualifies, setting up an interesting scenario for the race in Sochi.