Lewis Hamilton is no stranger to mind games and the gloves have come off once again as today he’s thrown a jab at Red Bull ahead of his next duel with Max Verstappen at the Spanish Grand Prix.
This comes after the current championship leader extending the gap between himself and his fierce rival Verstappen to eight points, following a defiant display from the Brit last time out in Portimao.
Like the championship table suggests, it’s been bitterly close between the pair so far on track but Hamilton believes he is only leading the championship through Red bull’s errors rather than an improvement from his Mercedes.
“I think they still have performance on us, they’re just making a lot of mistakes,” he told Sky F1.
“It’s unknown to us, but in the last race if he finished the lap that got taken away from him, he would have been a couple of tenths ahead.
“Because of that mistake, it felt like they’ve come closer to us rather than us closer to them. There’s a lot of work to do.”
Hamilton then thinks that Red Bull still have the upper hand in performance as they head into round four in Spain. These early mistakes from Verstappen showing how his experience could be key in the title fight. Although, Hamilton has also shown the odd crack with his almost race ending off at Imola a few weeks ago.
Credit: Mark Thompson , Source: Getty
Credit: Mark Thompson , Source: GettyContradictory to Hamilton’s beliefs, Verstappen has responded by arguing that Mercedes were in fact quicker that Red Bull in Portugal.
He said: “We are very close, sometimes maybe a little bit ahead sometimes a little bit behind.
“Clearly in Portimao, I think we were behind because as soon as Lewis wanted to push and fight, he was clearly faster.”
He also admitted that second place at Portugal’s race was absolutely the maximum he could have achieved that race weekend. Although he was ahead of Hamilton at one point in that race, only to be overtaken again following his own snap of oversteer.
The pair have already gone head to head multiple times on track this season and as the title fight begins to hot up, it’s looking like the battle of the minds is certainly kicking off.
What do you make of their comments? Be sure to let us know your thoughts down in the comments!