Hamilton fears Verstappen: 'Maybe Red Bull are even faster than us'

Lewis Hamilton expects a lot of competition from Red Bull Racing on Sunday afternoon, especially in the form of Max Verstappen. The Mercedes driver states that the RB16 on the Nurburgring is a more competitive package. The six-time world champion thinks it will be difficult to stay ahead of the 23-year-old Dutchman on the German asphalt.

"He did a good job today, as he always does," Hamilton starts at Jack Plooij in front of the camera of Ziggo Sport. "I think they've got some upgrades and so they've moved closer which means it's going to be really hard to beat them tomorrow. Because usually in the race they are closer. Maybe they will even be faster than us tomorrow."

Verstappen, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas all start on the soft tyres for the Grand Prix of Eifel. In terms of strategy, there seems to be only a limited number of options for Red Bull. Tyre degradation may still play a role, and it's a bit of an unknown because no long runs have been tested due to the canceled Friday. "It will be hard to beat those two guys," the six-time world champion suspects.

Just like Albon, Hamilton does not mind that the weekend in Germany only consists of two days. "I like it. It saves us 22 days a year, so that's good."