{"id":828590,"date":"2026-07-28T07:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828590\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T07:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:21:08","slug":"max-verstappen-explains-lewis-hamilton-dive-bomb-thought-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828590\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen explains Lewis Hamilton dive-bomb thought process"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Max Verstappen&#8217;s late-braking lunge on Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1 on Lap 16 of the Hungarian Grand Prix was the move of the afternoon in Budapest, and the four-time F1 drivers&#8217; champion knew he could not afford to wait.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton had jumped Verstappen through the pit cycle following the first round of stops on lap 15, emerging in third place ahead of the Red Bull.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>But Verstappen was having none of it. As both cleared Liam Lawson approaching the end of the main straight, the Dutchman threw the RB22 down the inside of Hamilton&#8217;s Ferrari at Turn 1 with a perfectly judged dive-bomb to reclaim the final podium position.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I knew that that was my only opportunity as well, because they were not too bad in terms of pace,&#8221; the Dutchman told media, including RacingNews365.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, when I saw the opportunity arise, I went for it and, yeah, it was a good move.&#8221;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>At the same corner two years ago, Verstappen attempted a similar dive on Hamilton during their battle for third on Lap 63, meaning the 28-year-old&#8217;s successful move will not be lost on either of them now.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The first time, it was perhaps overzealous, with the 71-time grand prix winner locking both front tyres, clipping the seven-time F1 drivers&#8217; champion&#8217;s Mercedes and launching his Red Bull into the air.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The stewards deemed it a racing incident, but it was a messy end to a fierce scrap.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>This time, however, Verstappen got it right. Clean entry, clean exit, position gained.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton did fight back later in the race, re-passing Verstappen in his third stint on fresher rubber. But a pit-lane speeding penalty under the Virtual Safety Car, triggered by Oscar Piastri&#8217;s gearbox failure on lap 56, undid his work entirely.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton was classified fifth behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, while Verstappen held on to second behind race winner Lando Norris.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen&#8217;s late-braking lunge on Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1 on Lap 16 of the Hungarian Grand Prix&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-828590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}