INTERNATIONAL: A simmering rivalry in Formula One erupted into a spectacular crash at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday. Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen crashed into Mercedes’ seven times world champion and defending champion Lewis Hamilton. Mercerdes have gone as far as to call the crash a tactical foul by Verstappen.

A picture paints a thousand words. Verstappen and Hamilton had been driving wheel to wheel midway through the race, when they collided at the first curve of the lap. Verstappen appeared to make contact with Hamilton’s Mercedes and went off the kerb and into the air.

Mercedes’ team principal Toto Wolff says Hamilton could have been seriously injured and that Verstappen had committed a tactical foul. Wolff says spectators will decide who was to blame. Both drivers somehow managed to escape injury. The Italian Grand Prix was eventually won by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo. He’s not won a Formula One grand prix since 2012.

^{PHOTO: STILL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE COLLISION BETWEEN RED BULL DRIVER, MAX VERSTAPPEN AND MERCEDES DRIVER, LEWIS HAMILTON AT THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX}