Red Bull's Max Verstappen says Lewis Hamilton's comments echoed by Sebastian Vettel about Verstappen's aggressive Formula 1 style after Mexico is a positive, because it shows he's \"in their heads\".<\/p>\n
Hamilton and Verstappen were involved an on-track scuffle through the opening sequence of corners in the Mexican Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Verstappen's race was later compromised for a clash with Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas on lap five of 71.<\/p>\n
Having gone on to win the race, Hamilton quipped afterwards that he had been \"torpedoed\" by Verstappen at Turn 1 - and said that the Dutchman's aggressive style meant that drivers like Hamilton give Verstappen \"extra space\" in wheel-to-wheel racing.<\/p>\n
He also described Verstappen as a \"magnet\" for incidents, while Ferrari driver Vettel then said he completely agreed with Hamilton's viewpoint.<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to next weekend's United States Grand Prix, Verstappen questioned Hamilton's view of the Mexico battle, before adding: \"I think from my side it was a bit of a silly comment to make - because I think I'm always a hard racer, but fair.<\/p>\n
\"I think it's just not correct.<\/p>\n
\"But of course it's easy to have a dig at someone.<\/p>\n
\"From my side, it's fine.<\/p>\n
\"It's always positive when they talk about you because that means you're in their heads.<\/p>\n
\"I just focus on my driving, and I think that's enough said.\"<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Asked what he made of being singled out by his F1 rivals, Verstappen reiterated: \"I think that from my side it already shows that I'm in their heads.<\/p>\n
\"I guess that's a good thing.<\/p>\n
\"But from our side, I don't need to dig into other people in a press conference, because first of all I think it's a bit disrespectful as well, and I prefer to fight on track, which I love to do.<\/p>\n
\"And of course I like to fight hard, but on the edge, otherwise - if they want me to stay behind, it's also better to stay at home.<\/p>\n
\"You want to take the fight to them, because that's what we are here for, we are racers, we are Formula 1, I think we are the best out there, and we do fight for victories because that's what I live for.\"<\/p>\n
Verstappen had lost pole for the Mexican GP after the stewards assessed he did not slow sufficiently for yellow flags on his second flying lap.<\/p>\n
The Red Bull driver, maintaining that he only saw the Bottas crash that brought out the yellow flag and not the flag itself - repeated that he felt the stewards had been \"very fair\" in awarding him the penalty.<\/p>\n
\"In hindsight I also didn't need to go for that laptime, because I was already on pole position,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"What was going through my head through that lap was, you don't know what the other guys are doing, if they are improving, are they beating your pole laptime.<\/p>\n
\"So, I didn't see the yellow flag, I improved my laptime, in hindsight I didn't need to do it, but also in hindsight I think next time I am anyway going to lift even if they would improve [on] my laptime just because they got lucky they were in front of the accident.<\/p>\n
\"It is what it is, but of course at the moment we are still not in a position to fight for pole position all the time, so of course I was enjoying the moment as well.\"<\/p>\n
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Verstappen: Hamilton and Vettel words show I'm in their heads - autosport.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Red Bull's Max Verstappen says Lewis Hamilton's comments echoed by Sebastian Vettel about Verstappen's aggressive Formula 1 style after Mexico is a positive, because it shows he's \"in their heads\". Continue reading