WATCH: Lewis Hamilton takes a sly dig at Max Verstappen over the lack of competition, says ‘he’s not really defending his title’

Hamilton is currently 33 points behind Perez for P2 in the WDC Standings.

WATCH: Lewis Hamilton takes a sly dig at Max Verstappen over the lack of competition, says ‘he’s not really defending his title’

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton (Credits: IMAGO)

The weekend in Qatar has kicked off today. Verstappen again showed what is to come after finishing first in FP one. As Red Bull prepares to celebrate Max Verstappen’s third WDC title tomorrow, congratulations have already started pouring in. His former arch-rival Lewis Hamilton also applauded the Dutchman but with a pinch of salt.

While Ferrari was in the title chase for some time in 2022, Red Bull has steamrolled everyone in the 2023 season. Verstappen’s lack of competition has also been a much-discussed topic this season. He has been on the receiving end of taunts for a long time now, coming from different people, including Hamilton.

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Talking about Verstappen, the seven-time world champion was asked in Qatar what it takes to defend two consecutive titles. To this, Hamilton slyly responded that Verstappen did not really defend the title. He said, “He’s not defending really this title, definitely not had to do any defendant response.”

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Out of his seven world championships, four were consecutive from 2017 to 2020. As Hamilton now sits in the back seat, he is surely not very happy and will be looking to bounce back in the next two seasons before the regulations change.

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Lewis Hamilton opens up on his third title ahead of Max Verstappen’s third championship win

Verstappen is just one race away from being crowned champion yet again. As the race weekend starts in Qatar, Hamilton reminisced about the time he won his third title in 2015. He revealed that he did not think about any other past champion except for one.

Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton (via Sky Sports)

He said that he thought of Ayrton Senna. Senna won three championships in his career in 1988, 1990 and 1991. Hamilton revealed that growing up, Senna was his role model for F1. He said that the experience of achieving the same feat as his icon was out of the world for him.

“I just thought about Ayrton [Senna]. For me as a kid, the dream was to get to Formula 1 and ‘ah, I hope I can do something like Ayrton’ and then I got three. When I eventually got three it was very surreal to think that I had equaled as many wins and pole positions and that was what blew my mind for me,” said Hamilton.

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