“The advantage Hamilton has over Verstappen is his incredible”– Helmut Marko

“The advantage Hamilton has over Verstappen is his incredible”– Helmut Marko on why Lewis Hamilton won against Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen kicked off the new Formula 1 season with a blockbuster battle in Bahrain, as the two drivers fought for the win till the final turn.

Even though Red Bull looked stronger, Verstappen, in the end, lost his fight, as Hamilton, before acing the race, said, “Leave it to me, Bono”, a spine chilling statement signalling that the things just got serious.

Five days later, to the Bahrain race, Helmut Marko gave his analysis on what led to Hamilton’s victory, and he pointed out an advantage the world champion enjoys over the rest.

“I think the race has clearly shown that the two belong to a class of their own,” Marko tells Motorsport-Total.com. “The advantage Hamilton has over Verstappen is his incredible routine.”

“I don’t know how many races and wins he has, but you could see it in how tactically he drove, how he changed lines and so on. It was a challenging race for Max,” explained Marko.

One day Max Verstappen will experience the same wealth

The experience Hamilton holds against Verstappen is honestly vast, with the seven-time world champion also being fiercely competitive, who never goes easy when in deficit.

But Marko feels that soon the Dutchman will experience the same amount of expertise and will know how to persevere under such stressful events.

“They are more or less equal. Max will one day also be able to fall back on such a wealth of experience as Hamilton,” said Helmut Marko. Verstappen last year managed to have two wins over Hamilton, one in Silverstone and the other in Abu Dhabi.

By the end of the 2020 season, Verstappen looked more threatening to Mercedes’ monopoly, and this year, there are reasons for the Brackley based team to be worried.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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