Quote Originally Posted by Bagwan View Post
I had mentioned that Max had geared down 5 times , but I hadn't seen that Lewis was gearing down as well , so can we then surmise that Hamilton actually knew what Max was doing ?
He actually knew Max was slowing down to let him by , which is not what he implied when he said he didn't get the message from the team until after the incident .

He may not have had official word from the team , but it seems like he was wise to the gambit Max was trying to work as he was also gearing down to more match Max's speed .

Both drivers were aware , clearly , that the first to cross the DRS line was at a distinct disadvantage . Both were slowing .
Max was not obligated to be on one side or other of the track , so chose the cleanest line and stayed there , leaving his opponent the least advantage he could .

Lewis approached , saw Max slowing , and slowed down , himself , and closed up tight .
Now , he wouldn't have known Max would press the whoa pedal , but he really didn't need to be directly behind him or that close , especially if he already suspected Max and he were in a race to slow down before the line .

As for Max , touching the brakes was over the line . Not cool .

Until that point in that incident, blame the stupid DRS , with it's stupid DRS line for prompting the drivers to be stupid .
It was established that the information that Verstappen was asked to give the place back to Hamilton had not reached Hamilton at the point when Verstappen was slowing down. Hence, he would not have known why Verstappen was slowing down. There might be a debris on the track for instance.

The slowing down was not the issue, it was the sudden braking that immediately followed that caused Hamilton to crash into the back of him. The braking was clear in the relative telemetry and the reason why he was found to be at fault.