2021 - Race 21 Saudi Arabia

[Nitrodaze]

We don't get to hear the radio messages on TV at the same time as they're transmitted to the drivers, but usually around 20 to 30 seconds delayed, as they are screened for inappropriate cntent first. So the message from Horner to Verstappen we heard just as the crash happened actually took place quite a bit earlier.
Of course, we still don't know when or if Hamilton was told of Verstappen's intention.

Quite true. It appears Verstappen got the message much earlier. Since Horner had to confirm agreement to give the place up to Masi and subsequently told Verstappen to give the place up, in parallel to Masi informing Meadows of Mercedes that the place is being given up and that being relayed to Hamilton's engineer and thereafter to Hamilton. It is clear there was a considerable gap in the time it took for the message to reach Verstappen and the time it took to reach Hamilton. Unfortunately, the message reached Hamilton after Verstappen had reacted to the message he received and resulted in a crash before Hamilton received the message.

One interesting new fact was that they were approaching a DRS detection point just when Verstappen received that message. So I could see there would have been an urgency for Verstappen to slow down considerably so as not to go over the line before Hamilton passed him. If that had happened as planned, then Verstappen would have got DRS and would have been able to mount a counterattack to take the position back.

When looking at it with all the facts, it is becoming very clear that Verstappen caused the crash by reducing speed drastically with the hope of having the pass done before the DRS line. Under the circumstances, it is reasonable to expect that Hamilton would not have expected Verstappen to slow down by how much he reduced speed.