Lewis Hamilton took a dig at Max Verstappen as he praised his “great battle” with Charles Leclerc at the British Grand Prix.
Stuck on used Hard tyres after the Safety Car, the Monegasque tried all he could to keep the Mercedes driver and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez behind in the closing laps.
But after the Mexican had made a robust move on the Ferrari, Leclerc and Hamilton then went wheel-to-wheel for over half a lap before the seven-time world champion eventually swept past on the Hangar Straight.
Hamilton and Leclerc battling for position around Copse corner#BritishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/J1DOuQa4gB
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 3, 2022
The duel between the two was somewhat similar to that Lewis had with Verstappen on the opening lap at Silverstone in 2021, which of course ended with the Dutchman being punted into the barrier at Copse corner.
And Hamilton alluded to that as he praised Leclerc.
“Charles did a great job, what a great battle. He’s a very sensible driver, clearly a lot different to what I experienced last year,” he told Sky Sports.
“At Copse, for example, the two of us went through there with no problem. What a battle.”
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Leclerc has certainly been involved in plenty of tight duels on track this season, including with Verstappen in each of the opening five races.
And the reigning world champion offered his opinion on why there haven’t been the collisions he had with Hamilton last year.
“I don’t think necessarily it was between the drivers, it was mainly because it’s a completely different approach between the teams last year and this year, and probably there was a bit more respect between the two teams as well this year,” Verstappen told Channel 4.
“I think that helps a lot for sure, and I’ve known Charles for a longer time because we basically grew up together throughout racing and go-karting, and all the way to Formula 1.
“But I always had, still have a lot of respect for Lewis and we always got on well, and also today, you know, as racing drivers, you know you come together but you also very quickly forget and just move on.
“The amount of times I’ve crashed with Charles in the past, but now we can laugh about it, so it’s just, you know racing drivers, they of course, look at themselves.
“We want to do everything we can to win a race and I think what is also the positive side about racing is that we can forget very quickly. We’ll just move on and just go to the next.
“Luckily, you also have a lot of races for that. But yeah, this year, it seems a little bit calmer, and I just hope it stays like that and you can just have a great race.”