Johnny Herbert loves the ‘on the edge’ thing he saw Max Verstappen do to Lewis Hamilton

Follow us on Google Discover

Max Verstappen secured his sixth podium through the past six rounds with P3 in the 2025 F1 Mexico City Grand Prix, yet his fight with Lewis Hamilton was controversial.

The 28-year-old has not finished off the rostrum in a Grand Prix since he recorded his worst penalty-free finish for 1,463 days with P9 in the Hungarian GP this August. Verstappen has since claimed three wins, two P2 results and one P3 finish, along with winning one F1 Sprint.

Recent results have also hauled Verstappen back into the F1 drivers’ championship, with the Red Bull racer now only 36 points behind McLaren star Lando Norris atop the standings. The four-time reigning champion has also outscored Oscar Piastri in each of the past five rounds.

Verstappen did not have the car to win the Mexico City GP, as Norris won the race boasting a 30.324-second lead over Charles Leclerc of Ferrari in P2 and a 31.049s margin over the Red Bull man in P3. The late VSC period denied Verstappen a chance to overtake Leclerc for P2.

Johnny Herbert loves that Max Verstappen rubbed wheels with Lewis Hamilton in the Mexico City Grand Prix

Verstappen had his elbows out from the start of the Mexico City GP last Sunday, though. The crowd at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez immediately saw Verstappen was prepared to take big risks in the Mexico City GP, as he went four-wide at Turn 1 before using the run-off.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Yet Verstappen’s overtake on Ferrari ace Hamilton on Lap 6 of 71 proved controversial, as he banged wheels with the Briton at T1 before cutting Turn 3 to get ahead. Yet Johnny Herbert, a self-proclaimed Verstappen critic, loved that the Red Bull star was willing to push the limit.

“We’ve both been critical of what we’ve seen,” Herbert told Damon Hill on the Stay On Track podcast. “But we saw, for example, when Max overtook Lewis going into Turn 1 in Mexico, I thought that was brilliant. [It was] right on the edge, very late, but he made the move.

“There was a little bit of tyre rubbing. That’s part of racing. It’s not going to be completely clean, as in no one is going to touch each other, because that’s not how it works.”

Lewis Hamilton shouldered some responsibility for his Mexico City GP incident with Max Verstappen

Verstappen utilised the slipstream he got from Hamilton’s Ferrari and DRS along the long pit straight to dart to the seven-time champion’s inside under braking for Turn 1. The four-time champion left it late to pull out and left it late to brake, which forced them both to go deep.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Hamilton did not cover the inside line for Turn 1 before Verstappen attempted the overtake with a late lunge. But the former tried to retain what was third position at the time around the outside, to which Verstappen drove out to the edge of the circuit’s limits to get in front.

Verstappen’s line and Hamilton’s desire to fight back meant the latter’s front-right tyre also rubbed the former’s front-left tyre. But the drama was not over, as Hamilton received a 10s penalty during his Mexico City GP battle with Verstappen on Lap 6 of 71 after he cut Turn 4.

While Verstappen avoided any punishment for cutting across the grass at T3, the stewards punished Hamilton as he gained a position and time by cutting T4. Ferrari did tell Hamilton to hand the place back, which would have also dropped him behind Haas’ Oliver Bearman.