LEWIS HAMILTON collided with World Drivers' Championship leader Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix - and then won the race - to revive his ailing title defence.
The victory following the incident on the opening lap at Silverstone reduced the Dutchman's title advantage back down to just eight points - and sparked an angry set of exchanges between the drivers and team bosses at Mercedes and Red Bull.
Christian Horner, the Red Bull principal, said he considered Hamilton to have earned a "hollow victory" and commented in a tone dripping with sarcasm: "I hope Lewis is very happy with himself."
Verstappen later wrote on Twitter from hospital where he underwent precautionary checks: "Very disappointed to be taken out like this.
"Watching the celebrations while still in hospital is disrespectful and unsportsmanlike but we move on."
In the case of the defence, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff responded: "It is a situation we all have seen in the past when great drivers race with each other.
"When nobody is prepared to give in, these kinds of situations can happen. But it takes two to tango."
Hamilton himself added his own comment on Twitter which read: "Today is a reminder of the dangers in this sport. I send my best wishes to Max who is an incredible competitor.
"I'm glad to hear he is ok. I will always race hard but always fairly."
In fairness to Hamilton's critics, the stewards at Silverstone did not entirely agree with that assessment on this occasion - and they punished him with a 10-second penalty.
Red Bull criticised the leniency of the punishment - the second-lowest available - but they are increasingly in danger of coming across as rather sore losers.
For sure, Hamilton stuck a wheel up the inside of Copse corner and failed to make it to the apex - but it felt as if the main reason for the clash was that neither driver wanted to give an inch to their title rival.
In this regard, the British Grand Prix stewards judged Hamilton to be "predominantly at fault", adding that Hamilton went into the corner "slightly behind and on the inside".
However, they appear to have assessed the incident accurately - and their penalty award, while not harsh, was a pretty fair outcome.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc took the main immediate advantage from the shunt, gaining the lead from third place on the grid, and going onto hold it for the next 49 laps of the 52-lap race.
But the 23-year-old Monegasque in the red Prancing Horse came up just short as Hamilton - despite his penalty - got into position to complete a clean overtake, ironically at Copse, on lap 50.
Hamilton therefore secured an eighth win at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix - but this was not any ordinary victory at home.
Following the recent dominance of Verstappen during this first half of the season, this must count as one of the most important wins in his 15-year F1 career.
Ahead of the race at Silverstone, the Dutchman had won four of the previous five races to turn a 14-point deficit after the Spanish Grand Prix into a 32-point lead following his lights-to-flag victory at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
In Monaco and in the Styrian Grand Prix - which was also at the Red Bull Ring - an utterly dominant Verstappen had also led from start to finish.
Indeed, it could easily have been so much worse this year for Hamilton so far.
At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 6 June, in the sixth race of the season, Verstappen retired from the lead with a left-rear tyre failure on lap 45 of 51.
The Dutchman's Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez scored only his second win in F1 after Hamilton made a bad braking error on the restart to fall out of the points altogether - but a Verstappen victory in Baku would have been far more costly to the Stevenage-born champion.
Even this weekend at Silverstone, Verstappen - once he recovers and calms down - will still feel as if he has the edge on Hamilton.
The British driver qualified ahead of Verstappen in the traditional qualifying session, held on Friday evening - but his Dutch opponent was in front of him before the first corner in the new-fangled one-third distance sprint qualifying trial held on Saturday afternoon.
In a break from tradition, it was the latter session which confirmed Verstappen on pole for the Grand Prix itself - and, perhaps more vitally, confirmed to everyone that the Red Bull is the faster car.
Undoubtedly, Verstappen has had a rough weekend - and a hell of a heavy crash at the force of 51G, that is 51 times the force of gravity - but he is still rightly odds-on for the Drivers title.
Next week, the Hungaroring in Budapest will host the last Grand Prix before the four-week summer break - but, after the recess, the races really come thick and fast.
The nine visits to Belgium, Verstappen's Netherlands home race, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Japan, United States, Mexico and Brazil are all scheduled to be crammed into a 10-week period between 29 August and 7 November - ahead of two races in the Middle East in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.
In other words, Mercedes must work fast to improve their pace if Hamilton is going to have a genuine chance against Verstappen.
It may have been a tough weekend - but the future remains bright for Verstappen.
HAMITON v VERSTAPPEN
HAMITON v VERSTAPPEN
| HAMILTON | v | VERSTAPPEN | ||||||
| 28-March | BAHRAIN | 1st | 25 | (+7) | 18 | 2nd | ||
| 18-April | EMILIA ROMAGNA | 2nd | 19 | 44 | (+1) | 43 | 25 | 1st |
| 02-May | PORTUGAL | 1st | 25 | 69 | (+8) | 61 | 18 | 2nd |
| 09-May | SPAIN | 1st | 25 | 94 | (+14) | 80 | 19 | 2nd |
| 23-May | MONACO | 7th | 7 | 101 | (-4) | 105 | 25 | 1st |
| 06-June | AZERBAIJAN | 15th | 0 | 101 | (-4) | 105 | 0 | 18th |
| 20-June | FRANCE | 2nd | 18 | 119 | (-12) | 131 | 26 | 1st |
| 27-June | STYRIAN | 2nd | 19 | 138 | (-18) | 156 | 25 | 1st |
| 04-July | AUSTRIA | 4th | 12 | 150 | (-32) | 182 | 26 | 1st |
| 18-July | GREAT BRITAIN | 1st | 27 | 177 | (-8) | 185 | 3 | Retired |
REMAINING CALENDAR
| (11) | 01-August | 2pm | HUNGARY | Hungaroring, Mogyoród |
| (12) | 29-August | 2pm | BELGIUM | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot |
| (13) | 05-September | 2pm | NETHERLANDS | Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort |
| (14) | 12-September | 2pm | ITALY | Monza Circuit, Monza |
| (15) | 26-September | 1pm | RUSSIA | Sochi Autodrom, Sochi |
| (16) | 03-October | 1pm | TURKEY | Istanbul Park, Tuzla |
| (17) | 10-October | 6am | JAPAN | Suzuka International Course, Suzuka |
| (18) | 24-October | 8pm | UNITED STATES | Circuit of the Americas, Austin, TX |
| (19) | 31-October | 7pm | MEXICO | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City |
| (20) | 07-November | 5pm | BRAZIL | Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo |
| (21) | 21-November | - | TBC | - |
| (22) | 05-December | 4pm | SAUDI ARABIA | Jeddah Street Circuit, Saudi Arabia |
| (23) | 12-December | 1pm | ABU DHABI | Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi |
FIA F1 DRIVERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2021
| Points | ||||
| 1 | Max Verstappen (NED) | Red Bull-Honda | 185 | (5 wins) |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton (GBR) | Mercedes | 177 | (4 wins) |
| 3 | Lando Norris (GBR) | McLaren-Mercedes | 113 | |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas (FIN) | Mercedes | 108 | |
| 5 | Sergio Pérez (MEX) | Red Bull-Honda | 104 | (1 win) |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc (MON) | Ferrari | 80 | |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz Jr. (ESP) | Ferrari | 68 | |
| 8 | Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) | McLaren-Mercedes | 50 | |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly (FRA) | Alpha Tauri-Honda | 39 | |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel (GER) | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 30 | |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso (ESP) | Alpine-Renault | 26 | |
| 12 | Lance Stroll (CAN) | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 18 | |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon (FRA) | Alpine-Renault | 14 | |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) | Alpha Tauri-Honda | 10 | |
| 15 | Kimi Räikkönen (FIN) | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1 | |
| 16 | Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA) | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1 | |
| 17 | George Russell (GBR) | Williams-Mercedes | 0 | |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher (GER) | Haas-Ferrari | 0 | |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi (CAN) | Williams-Mercedes | 0 | |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin (RUS) | Haas-Ferrari | 0 |
FIA F1 CONSTRUCTORS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2021
| Points | ||||
| 1 | Red Bull-Honda (AUT) | Max Verstappen - Sergio Pérez | 289 | (6 wins) |
| 2 | Mercedes (GER) | Lewis Hamilton - Valtteri Bottas | 285 | (4 wins) |
| 3 | McLaren-Mercedes (GBR) | Lando Norris - Daniel Ricciardo | 163 | |
| 4 | Ferrari (ITA) | Charles Leclerc - Carlos Sainz Jr | 148 | |
| 5 | Alpha Tauri-Honda | Pierre Gasly - Yuki Tsunoda | 49 | |
| 6 | Aston Martin-Mercedes (GBR) | Lance Stroll - Sebastian Vettel | 48 | |
| 7 | Alpine-Renault (FRA) | Fernando Alonso - Esteban Ocon | 40 | |
| 8 | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari (SUI) | Kimi Räikkönen - Antonio Giovinazzi | 2 | |
| 9 | Williams-Mercedes (GBR) | George Russell - Nicholas Latifi | 0 | |
| 10 | Haas-Ferrari (USA) | Mick Schumacher - Nikita Mazepin | 0 |
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