Hamilton’s dominance continues as new main rival emerges

As Lewis Hamilton moves ever closer to Michael Schumacher's Formula One record of 91 Grand Prix wins, a younger and equally ambitious driver is emerging as his main rival.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen is showing the kind of daring and panache now seemingly beyond the reach of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who is enduring a third straight season of frustration.

Valtteri Bottas, who is Hamilton's underpressure teammate at Mercedes , led the championship early on but has drifted back and has not won any of the past eight races. Now, Verstappen is poised to overtake Bottas and move second behind Hamilton overall when F1 resumes with the first of nine remaining races at the Belgian GP on Sept. 1.

Hamilton speaks in glowing terms about Verstappen, a fearless and mentally strong driver who does not crack under pressure. In fact, the 21-year-old Red Bull driver thrives on it, much like Hamilton.

Verstappen drove brilliantly from pole position in Sunday's Hungarian GP, fighting hard until Hamilton overtook him late on following a relentless chase to clinch his 81st F1 win. It was another enthralling scrap, following Hamilton's brilliant defense under intense pressure from Verstappen at the Monaco GP in May.

While Hamilton speaks respectfully of Vettel, a four-time F1 champion with 52 wins, he speaks seemingly with admiration of Verstappen.

"There is no better feeling, from a racing driver's point of view, when you have a race (where) you face a really strong competitor and a great driver like Max, obviously at their best," Hamilton said. "It is awesome to see the respect level between us. Really respectful driving and I hope to continue that."

Hamilton's processional win at the French GP in June prompted acerbic criticism of the lack of excitement in F1 because of the ultra-dominant Mercedes.

But since then, F1 fans have been treated to wonderful races in Austria and Germany, a decent race in Montreal, and two exciting contests at the British GP and in Hungary.

The dramatic spike in the interest level has much to do with Verstappen, who won in Spielberg and Hockenheim and was denied a podium shot at Silverstone following a collision.

"Everyone was so negative talking about the sport and now all of a sudden we've had this big step up from the Red Bulls," Hamilton said. "Now we've got a really good battle on our hands and it looks like it's here to stay."

Ferrari's state of flux — no wins in 12 this season and 0-15 stretching back to last year's U.S. GP — has opened the way for Verstappen.

Vettel blew championship leads in the past two seasons, and has not won in 20 races since his victory at the Belgian GP last August.

Verstappen is touted as a future multiple champion and genuinely looks capable of challenging Hamilton. He is already ahead on two counts: as the youngest driver to win an F1 race (at 18) and the fourthyoungest to take pole compared with sixth for Hamilton (who was 22).

But the 34-year-old Hamilton is still working his way through the record books and his win in Hungary — the eighth this season — extended his championship lead to 62 points as he chases a sixth F1 title to move one behind Schumacher's F1 record.

"I don't have plans on stopping anytime soon," he said.

Hamilton's relatively advanced age was a topic raised by his former teammate Nico Rosberg — who beat Hamilton in a thriller when clinching his only F1 title with Mercedes in 2016. The German driver showed great ability to overcome Hamilton in an acrimonious season which went down to the last race in Abu Dhabi.

Then, in a flash, he retired from F1 after tense seasons alongside Hamilton — when their bickering tore apart a friendship dating back to their karting days as teens.

Rosberg, who won 23 F1 races with Mercedes, has taken to social networks to comment on Hamilton.

He questioned the severity of Hamilton's illness at the recent German GP. He tweeted on July 28: "I think the man flu was just part of The Lewis Hamilton Show. He likes to make it look more difficult than it is."

Hamilton, who said he needed several days of heavy sleeping following that race, scoffed at Rosberg's claim.

"Believe me it wasn't man flu, like some have said," he said. "It was really something that wiped me out."

Verstappen's surge in form offered Rosberg another chance to take a swipe.

On his YouTube channel blog after Verstappen's superb pole in Hungary on Saturday , Rosberg said that Verstappen — with his "bullet-speed reactions in his mind (and) absolute peak human body reaction times" — is now the No. 1 driver in F1.

Despite evidence pointing to Hamilton's ongoing dominance, Rosberg insisted the British driver's powers are waning.

"The best age for racing drivers is 30, 31, 32 and that's because your ability as you're getting older slightly decreases," Rosberg said.

Hamilton was unimpressed.

"Whether he is right or wrong, I don't really care. All you have to do is look at the tally of my results and they speak for themselves," Hamilton said. "Naturally there will be people who have not had the success that I have, and might want to talk it down."

"I'm still fit," he added. "Hopefully you can see I've not lost any speed."

So far this season, every driver in F1 would agree.

Christian Horner: Red Bull 'desperately' needs Pierre Gasly to improve

Christian Horner says Red Bull Racing "desperately" needs Pierre Gasly to improve his performances and match teammate Max Verstappen more closely if it is to stand any chance of fighting Ferrari for second place in the Formula 1 constructors' championship.

Gasly finished eight-tenths of a second behind Verstappen in qualifying before crossing the line sixth in the race, one lap down on his teammate who battled for victory against Lewis Hamilton and ultimately crossed the line second.

The disparity between the two drivers has been notable in Gasly's first season at the team. While Verstappen has two wins and three further podium finishes to his name, Gasly has a best finish of P4, scoring 118 fewer points through the opening 12 races.

The points gap has also started to cost Red Bull in the teams' standings, where it trails second-placed Ferrari by 44 points.

"Obviously not having two cars running at the front does hurt us, particularly in the constructors’ championship where we scored the same amount of points as Ferrari today on a track where we should have taken more out of them," Horner said after the race.

"I think he really needs to take some time out during the summer break, reflect on the first half of the season and take the lessons from that into the second half of the year. It’s vital for us if we are to stand any chance of catching Ferrari that we have him finishing further ahead.

"We need him to be racing Ferraris and Mercedes, and everything we can do to help him to achieve that is what we will do."

Gasly's difficult start to the year has led to uncertainty about his future with the team, but Horner said the current plan was to keep him in the car for the remainder of the season at least.

"Our intention is to leave him the car until the end of the year," Horner said.

"But we desperately need to see him realising more of the potential of the car."

Gasly's struggles were also referenced during the post-race press conference when Verstappen and Hamilton were asked about a potential return of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso to the sport.

Hamilton said there was "still at least a seat available that’s good enough for winning" in F1, before later saying to Verstappen: "You’re the one with the extra seat, I would say."

Verstappen replied: "I didn't say that."

A Fernando Alonso comeback? No thanks - F1 has already moved on

The beginning of Formula 1’s summer break traditionally marks the beginning of another important period of the year: driver market silly season.

As teams begin to cast their eyes ahead to 2020 and who will form their line-ups, the way the dominoes may fall is starting to be gauged. Most are waiting on Mercedes to make a decision on Valtteri Bottas’ future before moving and seeing what the knockon effect will be for the rest of the grid.

But one name outside of the current field continues to be thrown into the mix: Fernando Alonso.

Now without any firm racing plans in the pipeline after leaving Toyota’s LMP1 squad following his second Le Mans win in June, Alonso’s name is being banded about once again as part of F1 silly season despite a comeback for 2020 looking highly unlikely.