Hamilton predicts: 'Will be very close to Verstappen'

Lewis Hamilton is currently five points behind in the World Championship, but the Mercedes driver has eight Grands Prix left to catch up. The Brit will be hoping to clinch his eighth World Championship title in 2021, but he is well aware that this is no easy task.

"It will be very close. And difficult, hard too. Just like in the first half of the season,"  he said to Formula1.nl. The current number two in the standings continued: "But I wouldn't know in what way that would be an advantage. Max is a top driver, a champion as he has proven in the past in the starting classes. Every title, in any class, increases your experience. Just like I'm no less under pressure than Max because I was already world champion once."

Hamilton fourteen years ago

Hamilton points to the 2007 season when he drove alongside Fernando Alonso at McLaren . It was supposed to be a year to remember, but it ended in a big fight and a missed world title. Kimi Raikkonen walked away with the top prize, while the McLaren was in fact a better car.

Hamilton: "Today I just have more experience. We all look back and think maybe we would do things differently now. But in Formula 1 there is another aspect: there is nothing that can prepare a young driver, like I was in 2007, for sudden fame. To the attention of the international media. To the pressure that a world like Formula 1 creates. It's something you have to learn. We've all learned to ride a bike with two little wheels at the back to keep the thing upright , and some kids take the wheels off sooner than others."

Verstappen won't let himself be thrown off balance

For now, though, Verstappen has been pretty stoic this season. He didn't let himself get mad at all at the Zandvoort circuit during the Dutch Grand Prix in front of some 70,000 fans. The focus was huge for the seventeen-time Grand Prix winner and it is hoped he will maintain that same focus until the final GP of the season in Abu Dhabi.