Hamilton's fury and his suspicions about the "strange" abandonment that gave Verstappen the win

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With 30 laps to go before the checkered flag at Zandvoort,

knew he had plenty of reasons to score his first victory of the year.

At that moment he was 16 seconds behind the leader,

, who still had to stop to change tires and return to the track behind the Mercedes.

However, a singular incident suddenly ruined the options of the seven-time champion.

Something like a

to that fateful 2021 Abu Dhabi GP in which the title slipped away during the final stretch of the race.

The protagonist of this episode was

, who on lap 42 left his AlphaTauri stranded in the Hugenholtz corner, suspecting that his left front tire had not been adjusted properly.

After stopping the car, the engineers ordered the Japanese to restart it and return to the

.

After mounting some used soft tires and falling a few seconds too late while his seatbelt was tightened, AlphaTauri took Tsunoda out again, but the Japanese immediately reiterated that his problem had not gone away.

"Something's wrong at the rear. I think the differential is broken," he said.

The answer on the other side of the radio was final: "Stop the car in a safe place."

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After a few seconds of confusion,

, race director, decreed a Virtual Safety Car period that greatly affected Hamilton's options in favor of Verstappen.

"It was a very interesting thing. I don't know exactly what happened, although I have heard that a car stopped, then went on ,

, came out and stopped again. It's the strangest thing I've ever heard," Sir Lewis explained in the mixed zone.

His suspicions pointed - even without mentioning it - to the possibility that AlphaTauri - Red Bull's affiliate team - had forced Tsunoda's withdrawal to facilitate Verstappen's victory.

Even knowing that an infraction of this type could be punished with expulsion from the World Cup.

However, the International Federation (FIA) overlooked this mishap and simply focused on Tsunoda's belt, who was sanctioned for having it unfastened.

According to article 34.14 of the Sports Regulations, he imposed a reprimand on the Japanese.

Being the fifth of the year implies a penalty of 10 positions on the grid, which must be fulfilled this Sunday at the Italian GP.

Asked by the journalists, Tsunoda changed his first impression, denying that it had been a badly adjusted wheel.

AlphaTauri, for its part, could not even confirm the nature of the fault.

"We are currently investigating it," said

, chief engineer of the Italian team.

The volcanic Tsunoda, 22, was thus left without scoring points for the ninth consecutive race, despite the fact that on Saturday he had managed to sneak into Q3, improving the performance of

, his garage partner.

On the rumors of some kind of rigging ,

, head of Mercedes, also wanted to speak.

"If we were fighting for a championship it would be something that I would follow very closely. This incident has probably changed the outcome of a race that perhaps we could have won," stressed the

Austrian

15 consecutive seasons

Those Hamilton options, in any case, ended up being extinguished with 12 laps to go, when

' breakdown opened a Safety Car period. At that point, Verstappen

for his fourth and final tire change. , while Mercedes chose to leave the seven-time champion on the track with his medium tires.

"I can't believe you screwed me like this, I can't tell you how pissed off I am," a furious Hamilton snapped over the radio, not understanding the division of the strategy, since his teammate

also went through the

to renew Footwear.

In this way, Hamilton lost from first to fourth place, while the rookie climbed from third to second on the podium.

After the race, much calmer, Hamilton apologized to his team for the lack of education.

"There are so many emotions... I can't even explain it... In the heat of the moment you say things you don't mean," he concluded.

From now on, the Stevenage rider will have to narrow down his options in the remaining seven races if he doesn't want to see his record of 15 consecutive seasons with at least one victory in the World Championship truncated.

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