Verstappen: 'No hard feelings' over Silverstone crash with Hamilton

One year on from his dramatic clash with Lewis Hamilton at the 2021 British Grand Prix, Red Bull's Max Verstappen says he has "no hard feelings" towards his former arch-rival.

One of the – unfortunate – highlights of the 2021 season was the spectacular crash at Silverstone's Copse Corner at the start of the race between championship contenders Verstappen and Hamilton.

The responsibility for the incident that sent Verstappen into the barriers is still being debated between the two camps, but fortunately the Dutchman survived the race another day.

Like many of his colleagues, Verstappen is a big fan of Silverstone Circuit, and the pleasure of racing once again at the Northamptonship venue supplants the bad memories from last year's event.

"Of course, the crash wasn’t nice, but I love the track," Verstappen told GP Racing. "I love going there.

"It’s [a] really good atmosphere with Formula 1, and we’re going really quick around there.

"So I don’t have any hard feelings. And I also think very easily I can put these things aside. Of course, it wasn’t nice what happened, but at the end of the day, you deal with it.

"It wasn’t a nice impact for me personally, but we go out there again and try to win of course."

• Read also: Horner sees Mercedes 'strong' at Silverstone and Paul Ricard

Silverstone is a fertile hunting ground for the Mercedes team and for Hamilton in particular, an eight-time winner at the high-speed track.

The Briton also typically enjoys a flood of support at his home race, and this year's aggregation of fans promises to be just as important and ebullient as in the past.

But Verstappen isolates himself from the cheering directed at his rival and perhaps the jeering directed at himself.

"The good thing is, once we jump in the car with the helmet on, you don’t hear anything," he said. "And they love motorsport. I mean, it’s such a big history in England in general, right?"

Verstappen heads into the British Grand Prix weekend with a 46-point lead in the Drivers' standings over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc sitting third, 49 points adrift.

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