Red Bull boss lauds “tremendous” Lewis Hamilton for his achievements and role as F1 ambassador 

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner praised seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton for raising awareness about issues such as equality and racism in his role as F1 ambassador.

Horner and Mercedes have not usually seen eye to eye on issues related to on-track activities and their rivalry has been well-documented for everyone to see. The Red Bull team boss did point out that his rivalry with Mercedes is subjected to on-track and he has healthy respect for Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff.

While speaking with TalkSport, he said:

“Huge respect for Lewis. What he's achieved, he's the most successful driver of all time. His records speak for themselves. They're huge. At the same point, he's a rival but there can still be respect for everything that he's achieved. And also outside of the cockpit as well, the way he's highlighted issues on equality and race and so on. I think he's done a tremendous job as an ambassador for Formula 1.”

Lewis Hamilton shares his views on his 2021 British GP win

Arguably the most controversial win of his illustrious career, Lewis Hamilton stated that collision with Max Verstappen was part of racing and it 'happens sometimes'.

Speaking with Sky Sports, Lewis Hamilton said:

"I lost out to Max on the start with a bit of wheel spin in the Sprint race and ended up not being able to get close enough. I knew though that the next day I had to be ahead, I had to get ahead somehow. I think I got a better start but he still held on to it on the outside through Turn One. We were dicing through (Turns) Three, Four all the way down in to Five where I think he ran me a little bit wide. I came back on him, got the exit of Seven."

He added:

"We collided, that's what happens in races sometimes, it's what motorsport sometimes entails. I had a 10-second penalty so I was like 'head down, focus, try to recover that' which I did, which I thought was quite a feat."

He also added about his post-race celebrations:

"You're not thinking about what happened earlier on in the race, all you're thinking of is being in the moment and sharing that with the fans. It wasn't in spite of the guy who was competing who crashed, it was just spur-of-the-moment sheer excitement - we won the Grand Prix after colliding, after losing the position the day before. That's that."

It would be interesting to see if Max Verstappen has mellowed his stance on the infamous incident with Lewis Hamilton.