Max Verstappen walking away from a 51G crash is the real winner

By sep, 19 July 2021

Yesterday's Formula 1 British GP started off strong between Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. The pair clashed halfway through the first lap where Verstappen was punted off the track and hit the tyre wall at a very high speed.

The 23-year-old Belgian-Dutch driver managed to walk away from the crash without any serious injuries, but if you look at the data of the incident, it's actually a miracle that he was able to do so. The crash registered a 51G impact when Verstappen's Red Bull F1 car hit the tyre wall. That's 51 times greater than the force of gravity.

To put things into perspective, a regular human being may lose consciousness when they experience 10-12Gs, and death may occur if that scale goes beyond 20Gs. Surviving a 51G crash (and walking away relatively unharmed, apart from a headache and bruises) is nothing short of amazing and also a showcase of how safe F1 cars of today have become.

Anyway, Lewis Hamilton ended up winning his home GP after overtaking Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in the final lap. By the time they crossed the chequered flag, Hamilton was almost four seconds ahead of the Ferrari, which was followed by Valtteri Bottas in third place. 

With that win, Hamilton is now only eight points behind Max Verstappen who is still leading the 2021 driver's championship title contention with 185 points. Lando Norris's P4 finish yesterday added to his overall points of 113, P3 in the driver's rankings.

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