BOSSY BOOTS
Still man in charge says Lew
LEWIS HAMILTON has dismissed the idea that he is starting to crack under the pressure of Max Verstappen’s title charge.
The seven-time world champion is one more crown away from being the most successful F1 racer of all time, having won four in a row and six of the last seven.
But his bid to march to world title No.8 is under scrutiny thanks to his Mercedes being pushed to the limit by Red Bull’s Verstappen, who has two wins in the first six races to Hamilton’s three.
However, the Dutchman also has three second-placed finishes and leads the championship by four points over the Brit.
Verstappen crashed out in Baku two weeks ago with a high-speed puncture while on course for a win, only for Hamilton to make a mistake and run off the road two laps from home when he had a chance to
move 14 points clear. Former Ferrari and Mclaren driver, Gerhard Berger, suggested that the heat is being turned up on Hamilton, a claim he swatted away.
As he prepared for today’s practice runs at Circuit Paul Ricard for
Sunday’s French Grand Prix, Hamilton said of his mishap in Azerbaijan: “Max was not in the race at the time so I definitely wasn’t under pressure from him.
“I don’t feel any pressure, I feel pretty relaxed and you cannot always be perfect. It was an unforced error in Baku that could have happened in any point but it hit us hard. I don’t count it as a mistake.”
Formula One chief Ross Brawn says he does not want Hamilton and Verstappen’s championship battle to be settled by a sprint race.
The ground-breaking concept, roughly a third-distance of a grand prix, will be trialled at three rounds this season, starting at Silverstone on July 17.
“We want to avoid the title being decided on a Saturday,” said Brawn. “It is one we are trying to avoid.
“We want to pick an event ideally a few races before the end of the season and a track where racing can take place in a short format with overtaking opportunities and tyre degradation, too, but we don’t want to do it at the last race.”