Red Bull adviser accuses Lewis Hamilton of exaggerating injury after Max Verstappen crash

Helmut Marko, adviser to the Red Bull Formula One team, appeared on Wednesday night to imply that Mercedes exaggerated the extent of Lewis Hamilton’s neck injury following the crash with Max Verstappen.

After crediting his roll hoop and halo device with saving his life at the Italian Grand Prix, Hamilton said on Sunday he would need to see a specialist over a potential injury to his neck. "My neck is getting tighter and tighter," he added.

However, Marko has now suggested Mercedes had deliberately made more of the incident.

"It was a normal racing accident, all the stories around it were pulled by Mercedes by the hair," he told the Austrian daily newspaper, Osterreich. "Verstappen had already got out when Hamilton tried to go back to get out of the gravel. The medical car saw that and drove on. And then a show is put on that poor Hamilton is suddenly injured, etc."

A source at Red Bull Racing told Telegraph Sport his comments were given as a personal opinion rather than on behalf of the team.