Lewis Hamilton accused of loving Max Verstappen ‘rubbish’ after Zak Brown comments

F1: Can Lewis Hamilton do it again?

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Christian Horner has his own thoughts on Lewis Hamilton’s comments about Max Verstappen in his press conference on Thursday. Hamilton and Verstappen may be doing plenty of battling on the track this season, but there was also a heated discussion on Thursday during the drivers’ press conferences.

Hamilton was up before his rival and was asked about McLaren CEO Zak Brown’s comments that contact between the two championship leaders at Turn 1 was “inevitable”.

The seven-time world champion replied by taking a sly dig at Verstappen, stating he’s the one who’s had to make evasive moves to avoid a collision so far.

“I think I’ve done well to avoid all the incidents so far, but we’ve got 19 more [races] to go and we could connect, hopefully not,” said Hamilton.

“I think perhaps [Max] feels he has a lot to prove,” Hamilton added. “I’m not necessarily in the same boat there and I’m more long-term, ‘it’s a marathon not a sprint’ sort of mentality, which is ultimately why I have the stats that I have. So I’ll continue with that and I’ll do everything to make sure that we avoid connecting.”

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Verstappen didn’t take too kindly to Hamilton’s remark though, insisting he too has had to adjust in battling with his title rival.

“I have nothing to prove. And avoiding contact, I think it goes both ways,” Verstappen said.

“So we have done well, that’s true. But we race hard, we’ve avoided contact both sides, so let’s hope we can keep doing that and keep being on track and racing hard against each other.”

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Now Red Bull team principal Horner has waded into the heated discussion and of course sided with his own driver.

But the 47-year-old went on to suggest that Hamilton appears to be rattled by Verstappen’s performances this season.

“Lewis loves all that rubbish,” Horner told Sky Sports.

“Max does his own thing, he’s his own man.

“The fact that Lewis feels he needs to do that means that actually Max is probably getting under his skin a little.”

Hamilton and Verstappen have avoided contact in a race for two years – but that last came at the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix.

At the time, Verstappen attempted to overtake Hamilton into the chicane only to be held off with minimal contact between the pair.

Verstappen is yet to stand on the podium at Monaco but he stands a good chance of at least rectifying that this weekend.

He heads into the race 14 points adrift of Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship.

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