Lewis Hamilton doesn’t feel any more “wary” racing Max Verstappen as the Formula 1 season resumes at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion reclaimed the lead in the standings in Hungary after the Dutchman scored just five points in the two races prior to the summer break.
At both races, Verstappen was caught up in incidents with a Mercedes, most notably at Silverstone where he was tagged into the barrier at high speed by Hamilton on the opening lap.
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But while Lewis has spoken out about Max’s aggression, he isn’t more worried about going wheel-to-wheel with the Red Bull.
“I don’t feel like I’m more wary than I was at the beginning of the year,” he said on Thursday at Spa-Francorchamps.
“In terms of understanding the drivers you’re racing with, that’s an interesting process.
“I won’t really say too much more about it, but I think I understand and know the guys I’m racing with really well.
“The most important thing is I’m racing against myself, always trying to improve and better how I perform, and that’s really my focus.”
Asked how he sees the run between now and Abu Dhabi playing out, Hamilton is ready for an epic duel.
“It’s going to be close, it’s going to be tough this second half of the season,” he claimed.
“The first half was definitely one of the toughest and I expect it’s going to be pretty much the same in the second half, if not more difficult.
“We knew how good [Red Bull] would be at the beginning; we’ve obviously seen the speed and the competitiveness of them in the past.
“Of course, as we’ve got through the season, they’ve got stronger and stronger and it’s been harder for us as we’ve gone on, we had a bit of a difficult patch but we got back to operating how we have done in the past.”
