Anyway, that’s all from me. Thanks for reading, emailing, tweeting ... that was mad wasn’t it? And it all comes down to next week in Abu Dhabi. See you soon for more.
“Don’t push me, I’m going to cry,” says Esteban Ocon of missing out on the podium at the very last. “Five metres to the end, that was what cost us the podium ... hard to swallow, the competitor inside me is frustrated and very sad ... today was an outstanding team effort once again.”
“Hi Luke, having read Alex Kroon’s email to you, I can tell you that the headline in EL PAIS is that Verstappen performed a “strange manoeuvre” causing the touch with Hamilton,” emails Simon West. “And that he “turned the struggle for the championship into a dirty fight”, so other parts of Europe are obviously taking a view on what happened today.”
Looking at an on-board replay from Verstappen’s car when Hamilton hit him, it looks to me as if he is genuinely trying to let Hamilton through. But, ultimately, that incident is not why people are complaining about Verstappen today – it was more a couple of reckless moves in corners (which, it is worth pointing out, he was punished for during the race) ...
More Hamilton quotes , from a press conference: “I took a lot of risk at the end, with the damage that I had, to get the extra point [for the fastest lap] ... we keep pushing, we never give up ... today I think I’ve seen a passion in my team which I don’t think I’ve seen in 10 years, and that’s amazing.”
“For him ... it doesn’t matter for him if we don’t both finish. For me, we both need to finish ... but it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
Hamilton gives his version of the contact with Verstappen: “I didn’t get the information, so I didn’t really understand what was going on, it was very very confusing, all of a sudden he started backing up and started moving a little bit [across the track], I was like: “Is he trying to play some crazy tactic? I don’t know.” The message started coming through just as he ... like, he hit the brakes so hard that I nearly went up the back of him and took us both out.
Lewis Hamilton has a chat: “For me, I had to try and keep my cool out there which was really difficult to do, and, like, I’ve raced a lot of drivers through my life, in the 28 years [of racing] I’ve come across a lot of different characters, and there’s a few like at the top which are kind of, yeah, over the limit ... yeah ... rules don’t apply, or don’t think the rules apply.
“Today, I just tried to do my talking on the track, keep the car between the white lines, and do it the right way, I was trying to catch ... we got the pole, then I lost out, then I got back past, he passed over the kerb.
“There were just so many crazy curveballs ... then he obviously brake-tested, I think, to try and get the DRS back into turn 1 to overtake me again. There was the commotion, I lost my wing ... I took a lot of risks to get fastest lap.
“He’s [Verstappen] over the limit, for sure. I mean I’ve avoided collision on so many occasions with the guy and I don’t always mind being the one that does that, you live to fight another day, which I obviously did.”
Updated at 15.53 EST