Lewis Hamilton has claimed that Max Verstappen still has not learned his lesson after calling him a ‘dangerous’ driver in their 2021 title race.
The Red Bull star is reportedly facing a five-place penalty for the Brazilian GP this weekend after two separate incidents with title rival Lando Norris in Mexico.
Lewis Hamilton has claimed that Max Verstappen still has not learned his lesson after calling him a ‘dangerous’ driver in their 2021 title race.
The Red Bull star is reportedly facing a five-place penalty for the Brazilian GP this weekend after two separate incidents with title rival Lando Norris in Mexico.
The Dutchman is just 47 points ahead of Norris with 120 left in the bag to collect.
And Hamilton has insisted that Verstappen has not changed since the 2021 season, when he passed the Englishman on the last lap of the Abu Dhabi GP to win the title.
‘All you have to do is go back and listen to some of my radio comments back in the day,’ said Hamilton.
‘If I was in the battle I could lean in more to it but you have to ask those two [Verstappen and Norris] because they are the ones that it is affecting.
But I don’t think you are seeing much difference across the years from 2021 until now, it’s pretty much the same.’
In the penultimate race of the 2021 season in Jeddah, Hamilton believed that Verstappen slowed down deliberately on lap 37 to ‘brake test’ him.
Hamilton swerved but collided with Verstappen’s rear-left tyre with the right-hand side of his front wing. Verstappen was given a 10-second penalty for erratic driving but that was not enough for him to lose a place.
‘He just brake-tested me,’ Hamilton said over his team radio at the time. ‘That was dangerous driving.’
After the race, he added: ‘I’ve raced a lot of drivers in my life, in the 28 years. There’s a few at the top which are over the limit. Rules kinda don’t apply, or they don’t think of the rules.
