Verstappen should cruise to second Formula One title, says Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton expects Max Verstappen to cruise to his second world championship - describing the Red Bull driver's path to probable glory as "smooth-sailing".
Verstappen racked up the seventhwinofhistitledefence at Sunday's French Grand Prix after rival Charles Leclerc crashed out from the lead.
Verstappen will arrive for this week's Hungarian Grand Prix - the final round before
FormulaOne'sfour-weeksummershutdown-holdingacommanding 63-point advantage over Leclerc, the equivalent of two-and-a-half victories with 10 rounds left.
Hamilton,whoisnowmore thanacenturyofpointsbehind Verstappen despite claiming his best result of the season with second place in France, said: "I am gutted for Charles. He has been doing a great job.
"But it is not easy to have thatperformanceandpaceand be able to maintain it. I feel for thewholeteambecauseIknow what that can feel like.
"It is a massive gap to Max sothatisprettysmooth-sailing for him in that space. But a lot can go wrong. I would just adviseFerraritokeeptheirheads down and continue to push."
Hamilton's Mercedes team celebratedtheirfinestresultof theseasonwithGeorgeRussell finishingthirdtojoinHamilton on the podium.
It has been a turbulent campaign for the grid's once all-conquering team, leaving Hamilton to draw parallels with 2009.
Hamilton started that season in a deeply uncompetitive McLaren before pulling off a surprise win at the Hungaroring. Could history repeat itself this weekend?
"I remember that year very clearly," said Hamilton, who has won in Hungary a record eight times.
"I remember arriving back fromwintertrainingandbeing inameetingwiththeguys,and they were like 'we have already hit our downforce target'. And I was like 'wow, really? That probably means we have not set the target high enough'.
"I got in the car in a test at Portimao and it was horrendous to drive, the worst car I have ever driven. But we chipped away at it, and we got our first win in Budapest.
"The start of this year was very similar. Sitting down it looked glorious. We had a lot ofperformanceonthecar,and a lot of confidence that the car wasgoingtobegood.Butwegot in the car, it was bouncing and it has taken a long time to fix that. So far we have not made thatbigstepthatwedidin2009 to win in Budapest, but who knows? We are not giving up.”