“It’s not the first time I’ve been in a championship fight”– Max Verstappen downgrades Lewis Hamilton’s comment on pressure in battle

Max Verstappen has been calm both on and off-track in the title battle with Lewis Hamilton and does not want to change his approach.

Ahead of the Mexican GP and then four more races to finish F1’s greatest title battles, Max Verstappen has once again shrugged off Lewis Hamilton’s comment on his inexperience and pressure in the battle.

Verstappen said, “I like what I’m doing, you know. So that takes the pressure off.” The Dutch racing driver holds a 12-point lead against the seven-time world champion in the 2021 championship.

Not for the first time this season, Hamilton pointed out Verstappen’s inexperience. He said, “I know Max has not won a championship in a long, long time. I know what it’s like going for your first championship, and I know the pressures that come with that.”

To which, Verstappen said, “It’s not the first time I’ve been in a championship fight. Yes, the first time in F1 but not in my life so that doesn’t really change because you need to win, and that’s what I’ve been doing in the past so I need to strive to do the same here.”

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Mexico City GP favours Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver has already scored two victories at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The circuit has been in favour of Red Bull in the past.

However, the Dutchman said, “You can look good on paper but you still have to nail your set-up. It might look good for us but we have to be on it from P1 onwards and make sure we go in the right direction with the car.”

About his chances to win the title, Verstappen said, There’s still a lot of races to go and a lot of things can go wrong. I just need to be focused on this weekend and then after this, we’ll focus on the next, and then we’ll see in Abu Dhabi.”

Furthermore, he is looking forward to maintaining the same approach towards the championship that he has in the race so far.

“My approach will be the same as the whole year,” said Verstappen, who has crashed heavily with Hamilton twice this year. “I always try to score the most available points out there, I always have, like Lewis does, as everyone else does. Of course, you always try to keep it clean.”

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