Tensions were raised during the second practice session for United States Grand Prix this morning with Max Verstappen clashing with title rival Lewis Hamilton, calling him a "stupid idiot".<\/p>\n
Hamilton frustrated Verstappen by pushing through on the inside of the Red Bull when the Dutchman was lining up a flying lap.<\/p>\n
After the Mercedes almost pushed Verstappen off the track, the Dutchman gave way, lifting his right hand off the wheel to make a gesture with his middle finger at the rear end of Hamilton's car.<\/p>\n
Verstappen complained on team radio that Hamilton was a "stupid idiot" and never seemed to recover his poise, ending the session eighth fastest.<\/p>\n
"They were obviously queing up to start the lap and Lewis decided just to jump Max there," Red Bull principal Christian Horner told UK Sky TV from the pit lane.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
"They have an unwritten rule in sessions like this that they take their turns and Max was pointing out that he was first in the queue."<\/p>\n
Verstappen kept his cool speaking to media afterwards.<\/p>\n
"Just a mess with the traffic," he said.<\/p>\n
"We're all lining up to go for our laps so I don't really understand what happened there."<\/p>\n
Mercedes drivers Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton were both quicker than Verstappen in Friday's first practice.<\/p>\n
Bottas was fastest in the first session as Hamilton and Verstappen went 2-3. The Mercedes power surge on a track where its cars have dominated shows the work Verstappen must do Sunday to hold his slim championship lead. Verstappen leads Hamilton by six points with six races to go.<\/p>\n
The Texas race is the first of a two-part swing in North America as the series heads next week to Mexico City. Both races were canceled by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n
Mercedes has dominated the Austin track, winning five times since it opened in 2012. Hamilton has won four of those races and teammate Bottas won in 2019.<\/p>\n
Verstappen is chasing his first championship. Hamilton has seven. An eighth would push Hamilton ahead of Michael Schumacher for the most in series history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tensions were raised during the second practice session for United States Grand Prix this morning with Max Verstappen clashing with title rival Lewis Hamilton, calling […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148188,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148186\/revisions\/148188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}