Lewis Hamilton, the British Mercedes driver and current Formula 1 world champion, rejected that on his part there is any wrong maneuver to favor himself in the final stretch of the fight he holds with the Dutchman Max Verstappen of Red Bull for the 2021 title.
Ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix that takes place this weekend at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in the Mexican capital, Lewis Hamilton refused to have the idea of provoking a touch to harm Verstappen.
“I am here to win the right way and that is thanks to skill, determination and hard work,” Hamilton told a press conference on Thursday.
In a close contest for the drivers’ championship, Verstappen leads the standings with 287.5 points, followed by Hamilton with 275.5 points.
Before this contested scenario, Toto Wolff, director of the Mercedes team, declared days ago for the British newspaper Daily Mail that between Verstappen and Hamilton there could be episodes similar to those that occurred in the rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
In the 1989 and 1990 editions of the Japanese Grand Prix, Senna deliberately collided with Prost to influence the championship fight.
Hamilton, a seven-time top-flight champion in professional motorsports, stressed: “We have never won a championship that way and I would never want to.”
The silver arrows team driver was confident that Verstappen will continue to compete loyally in the quest to be crowned for the first time in Formula 1 and unseat the multi-award-winning British.
“If you are going to lose it, you will also lose it in the right way, with dignity and knowing that you are giving everything and have done things the right way and have worked as hard as you can,” Hamilton said.(AFP)