Lewis Hamilton Calls the Grid to Unite Against Max Verstappen With Ulterior Motives in Mind

Lewis Hamilton has had an outstanding start to the United States Grand Prix weekend as he finished second in the sprint on Saturday. Moreover, with him starting third for the main race on Sunday, he will hope for another strong points-scoring finish. While the Briton has gotten his weekend off to a decent start, he seems to have some ulterior motives in mind involving Max Verstappen.

The 38-year-old wants the grid to unite to keep the Dutchman behind during the main race on Sunday. Since Verstappen is only starting sixth, there is a huge possibility that a non-Red Bull driver will win the race.

Lewis Hamilton hopes to keep Max Verstappen behind in Sunday’s race

After grabbing second during the sprint race on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton now hopes to take the momentum into Sunday’s Grand Prix. The Briton will start behind pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and second-placed Lando Norris.

Speaking of what he expects from the main race with Max Verstappen starting behind him, Hamilton said in the post-sprint race press conference (as quoted by fia.com), “Yeah, I think that will be helpful for us at the front. I mean, ultimately, I think he (Verstappen) will be breathing down our necks, with the pace that he had today“.

The 38-year-old then added that as long as he and the rest of the grid can keep the Dutchman behind, the rest of them can have a good fight for the win since they are “all quite similar in pace“. However, considering how quick Verstappen has been this weekend, Hamilton knows it will be a huge task to keep him behind.

Hamilton explains how realistic it is for him to keep Verstappen behind

During the same press conference, one of the members of the media asked Lewis Hamilton about how realistic it is for him to keep Max Verstappen behind. In reply, the 38-year-old said, “Anything’s possible. It depends. I mean, he’s got at least half a second on all the cars ahead of him per lap, pretty much. So that should be enough to get by“.

While the Mercedes driver believes that Verstappen definitely has the pace advantage over his rivals, he does believe that he and the rest of the drivers can use some kind of strategy to keep the flying Dutchman behind. However, irrespective of what the rest of the grid does, Hamilton does not believe it will be easy for them to keep Verstappen behind as the Circuit of the Americas is a “track that you can overtake“.