Hamilton admits it will be “tough” to beat Verstappen to F1 title

Hamilton stormed to his 100th grand prix victory last time out at the Sochi Autodrom to reclaim the lead of the drivers’ championship.

The gap is just two points with seven rounds remaining after Verstappen recovered from the back of the grid to finish second in Russia.

Assessing the battle ahead, Hamilton said: “Well, undoubtedly it’s going to be tough. I think, for two-thirds of the season so far they’ve had the edge. However, it’s obviously been difficult with all sorts of things, curveballs sent to both of us and our teams. 

“There’s still everything to play for in these next races. I think they’ve got a good set of circuits coming up and I anticipate or just continue to be really close between us. Just got to be hopeful of some good races.”

Despite having the fastest car in the previous two rounds, Hamilton didn’t win at Monza and needed rain to beat Lando Norris in Russia.

Hamilton believes that he and Mercedes haven’t maximised their chances in 2021 and has called for improvement in the final third of the year.

“Look, it’s not only the two races, there’s been plenty of races where we’ve not maximised, as a team, collectively, both drivers and everyone but we’re still in a fight and we can continue to improve,” Hamilton added. 

“There are definitely things that we will try and do better moving forwards but we just won’t give up, we’ll just keep trying, keep pushing, remain hopeful and just do the work.”