Hamilton up for challenge if he continues to be pushed to the Max by Verstappen

LEWIS HAMILTON is relishing the prospect of a world championship fight with Max Verstappen after the Red Bull driver pulled off a shock victory at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s win was born out of his car being kinder to its tyres than the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, who again struggled in the heat at Silverstone yesterday to finish second and third respectively.

Mercedes have dominated this season and were expected to claim a fifth straight victory after locking out the front row in qualifying, but Verstappen capitalised on their tyre woes to breathe life into the title fight.

Ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, the Dutchman is 30 points behind leader Hamilton, but the Briton said: “It’s great that Max won. As I said before, I want to have races and a challenge.

“Obviously, the Red Bull seems to be quite close to us in race conditions, but that’s a good thing, and it will be interesting to see their progression through the rest of the year. I definitely will not overlook them. We will keep a close eye on them.

“It’s not going to be easy by any means. I don’t think my team have that mentality anyway. And maybe in the future we will get to have a bit more of a race.”

Last week, Hamilton (above) crawled over the line on three wheels, following a last-lap puncture and again tyres were the talking point at Silverstone.

Bottas, who qualified on pole, was like Hamilton going through his tyres at an alarming rate. Verstappen, who started in fourth, was relentless in chasing down the Mercedes pair and refused to back off and conserve his rubber — despite his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase urging him to do just that.

“This is the only chance to beat Mercedes,” Verstappen yelled over the radio. “I am not going to sit back like a grandma.”

He was true to his word, finishing 11.3 seconds clear of the Briton.