Max Verstappen quickly dismissed Lewis Hamilton's claim that the Dutchman feels he has "a lot to prove" in their Formula 1 championship fight this year.
The verbal back and forth began after the Mercedes driver responded to recent comments by McLaren CEO Zak Brown, with the American suggesting it was a matter of time before the two drivers collided on track.
Despite going wheel-to-wheel numerous times already during the first four races, so far the racing between Verstappen and Hamilton has been fair despite some slight contact at the start at Imola.
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And in Lewis' view, there's no reason for that to change.
“I think I’ve done well to avoid all the incidents so far,” said Hamilton in Monaco on Wednesday. “We’ve got 19 more [races] to go and we could connect, hopefully not.
“The good thing, I think, there is a nice balanced amount of respect between us. I think perhaps, as you know, he feels perhaps he has a lot to prove. I’m not necessarily in the same boat there.
“I have a more long term, a kind of, ‘it’s a marathon not a sprint’ sort of mentality, which is ultimately why I have the stats that I have," Lewis added. "So I’ll continue with that and I’ll do everything to make sure that we avoid connecting.”
Verstappen did have a reputation for collisions during his early F1 career, but has been more measured in his approach ironically since crashing in Monte Carlo back in 2018.
And while it is true that it is up to the Red Bull driver to show he can beat Hamilton, he denies that is at the forefront of his mind.
“I have nothing to prove,” Verstappen said. “And as for avoiding contact, I think it goes both ways, so we have done well, that’s true.
"We raced hard, we avoided the contact, both sides, let’s hope we can keep doing that and keep being on track and race hard against each other.”
Verstappen then criticised the line of questioning, suggesting it was more about creating stories.
"I honestly don't know what to say any more about these things," he said.
"We never try to crash, do we? This is just to make a few interesting headlines, I guess you get more views when you say it is a matter of time rather than saying we have had some great races. People will clickbait that one."
