Hamilton warned: 'Verstappen and Perez together will make it difficult for me'

For a moment Lewis Hamilton looked set to take the lead of the race at the restart in Baku and gain crucial points on title rival Max Verstappen, who had crashed out moments earlier. Hamilton made a mistake, however, and left Azerbaijan with zero points.

A bit of bad luck

It was not the best of weeks for the reigning world champion. After finishing seventh in Monaco, the Briton crossed the finish line in 15th place in Baku. "I think it's been an incredibly difficult two races," Hamilton told Autosport.com. "It was certainly a painful experience, but I think Sunday was really a bit of bad luck. But Max was unlucky too, and these things happen."

Still, Hamilton remains positive. He thinks the team will come back stronger. "I think you can clearly see that the Red Bull is the fastest at the moment. It was very difficult to keep up with them, but it was good that we were back there."

Key role for Perez

In Baku, Verstappen's retirement allowed Perez to win the race, but even before that the Mexican was competing well up front and managed to keep Hamilton behind him. For Hamilton, this was no surprise."This is what we expected at the beginning of the year. Their car is incredibly fast, so no doubt those two [Verstappen and Perez] together will make it difficult for me."

In the end, neither title contender managed to score points in Baku, but for Hamilton it was not necessarily reassuring that his main rival also remained scoreless. "It's irrelevant, it doesn't really make a difference to be honest. These classes have been sent to test us."