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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Daniel Moxon

Max Verstappen in two angry radio blasts at Lewis Hamilton during Australian GP

Max Verstappen made it clear he was very unimpressed with Lewis Hamilton's antics in the early stages of the Australian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman had started on pole, but did not get the launch he wanted. George Russell moved up the inside and had the lead of the race by the exit of the first corner, before the safety car was called out following Charles Leclerc's spin.

But before the Ferrari was out, Hamilton had also made a move on Verstappen which resulted in their wheels banging. The Brit got the move done to take second place before the yellow flags were waved, but the Red Bull star made sure everyone knew exactly how he felt about that move.

He shouted over the radio: "He pushed me off the track! I was ahead at the apex, he pushed me off." The Dutchman clearly felt he should have been given the place back, but he wasn't and the stewards were not interested in looking into the incident.

The race restarted shortly after but it wasn't long before the safety car was out again. Alex Albon had a hefty smash which left so much gravel on the track that the race director decided to red flag the session until it could all be cleared up.

That meant a grid restart and, before it, another formation lap. It was during that trip around the Albert Park track that Verstappen spotted another thing that Hamilton did which annoyed him.

George Russell's Mercedes set on fire after an engine failure (Sky Sports)

He felt the Brit was not following the safety car closely enough, and TV coverage showed that the Mercedes was nowhere near the 10 car lengths that the leader is supposed to remain within of the safety car.

Verstappen moaned: "Mate, this is more than 10 car lengths. Check it!" The slow procession also caused issues further back in the procession, as there was a big of a traffic jam at turn three with cars crawling along the track.

When the race restarted, Verstappen was able to get the better of Hamilton with the help of DRS. And to make matters worse for Mercedes, Russell suffered an engine failure which saw flames appear at the back of his car, which meant he was also out.

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