Hamilton and Verstappen retired at mid-dista༺nce in Sunday’s race at Monza following a dramatic collision as they battled for position at the first chicane♔.

Seven-time w🦋orld champion Hamilton was trying to defend his position as he🃏 emerged from the pitlane as the pair went wheel-to-wheel on the run to Turn 1.

Verstappen attempted to go all the way around the outside of Hamilton and tak🌱e the in♑side line into Turn 2, but jumped over the sausage kerbs and was launched on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes.

Both drivers ended up beached in the graveꦕl trap at the exit of the first chicane, with Verstappe༺n’s car stuck on Hamilton’s.

The incident, which is under investigation by the stewards, followed a wheel-banging moment on the first lap as the pair squabbled ov🐽er second place at the second chicane.

Hamilton backed out on that occasion and was forced to skip over the ruꦜn-off, and the Briton felt ♚Verstappen should have reacted in the same way in their later collision.

“It’s exactly the same scen꧋ario that happened in Turn 4 where I went around the outside, was in exactly the same position, but I gave way - and that’s racing” Hamilton told Sky Sports.

“He just 🧸didn’t want to give way today and he knew going into Turn 2 what wasও going to happen. He knew that he was going over the kerbs but he still did it.

“We’ll speak to the stewards, but… I don’t really knဣow ꦍwhat else to say.”

Hamilton was🌠 convinced he left Verstappen enough room and admitted⛄ he was taken by surprise by the collision.

“I was racing as hard as I co🐷uld, finally got past Lando and was in the lead, so they pitted me,” Hamilton said.

“The pitstop was obviously slow, l🌟♕ost around a second and a bit. I came out, I saw that Daniel came past and Daniel was coming.

“I made sure I left a car’s width on the outside for him an💙d was obviously ahead. I was ahead going into Turn 2 and then all of a sudden he was on tꦆop of me.”

In frightening scenes, Verstappen’s car was launched a♈irborne and appeared to make contact with the Halo on Hamil𓄧ton’s Mercedes.

“I’m a little bit stiff,” Hamilton revealed. “A bit sore in my neck to be honest because it landed on my head. But I’l✱l be okay.”

There was a different version of events from the Red Bull camp, with Verstappen immediately coming over team radio to say: “That’s what h🌸appens when you don’t leave space.”

Speaking to Sky after the race, the Dutchman stood by his view, adding: “We realised it was going toꩲ be close going into Turn 1.

“He cut across already on the white line and I had to go onto the green part to not touch and went around the outside. Of course he realised that I was going for it, so he jus🃏t kept on squeezing me and I wanted to work with him, because I wanted to race.

“Of course people automatically start talking about Silverstone, these things happen, and it wasn’t nice at the time but I think we are all professional enough to get on with𒅌 it and keep on racing each other.

“I didn’t expect him to just keep on squeezing, squeezing, squeezing, because he didn’t need to. Even if he had left just a car’s width, we would have rac🃏ed out of Turn 2 anyway. I thi🃏nk he would have probably still been in front.

“But he just kept on pushingꩲ me wider, wider, wider and then at one point there was nowhere to go. He just pushed me onto the sausage kerb an✨d that’s, at the end of the day, why we touched because the rear tyre bumped up to the tyre.”

Asked whether he should have taken to the escape road as Hamilton had done earlier, Verstappen replied: “Well I don’t♈ 🐼think you can judge them exactly the same, because he just kept on squeezing and squeezing and I was a lot alongside him.

“You need two people to work together to maꦗke the corner when we are fighting for position. Unfortunately we touched.

"If one guy is not willing to wo😼rk, then what can you do, it’s not go༒ing to happen.”