Hamilton spoke about the “crazy curveballs” sent during the race, which featured two restarts, multiple safety car periods and a fraught battle with his title rival.
The drama peaked when Verstappen slowed to allow Hamilton past, after having taken the lead off-track. The Dutchman said that he slowed to let his rival by and didn’t “really understand” what had happened.
Hamilton, using the same phrase, said that he was also confused because he hadn’t got a message that the switch would take place.
“I didn’t really understand what was going on, it was very, very confusing,” he said. “All of a sudden he’s started backing up and then kind of moving a little bit.
“I was like, ‘is he trying to play some kind of crazy tactic? I don’t know’. Then also the message [about the switch] started coming through, just as he hit the brake so hard and I nearly went up complete the back of him — took us both out.
“It doesn’t matter for him if we don’t both finish. For me, we both need to finish and but it’ll be interesting to see what happens.”
A stewards’ inquiry found that Verstappen had braked heavily, generating a 2.9g force, to let Hamilton through at the fastest point of the Jeddah circuit. As a result, he was “predominantly at fault”.