Red Bull star Max Verstappen didn’t hesitate to tease Lewis Hamilton for the slow start to the season, mentioning that his Mercedes teammate George Russell with the same machine, things are better.

Hamilton struggled in 2022, currently sits seventh in the drivers’ standings, 58 points behind. ferrariX Charles Leclerc First of all. Meanwhile, Verstappen emphasized that lapping it Mercedes The opponent at Imola was not something that I appreciated at the time.

“Honestly, I didn’t like it at the time. Verstappen told The Telegraph.

“I was just focused on my race, on getting as clean as possible through traffic and winning. I mean, I didn’t think, “Oh, I’m overtaking Lewis, what an amazing feeling.”

“Last year I had great fights with Lewis. Now he’s in a car that’s not so good.

“Having said that, of course, George finished fourth in this car. [the W13] is it really that terrible?

Hamilton problems at Imola

Verstappen kept breaking the reasons behind Hamiltonthe failure at Imola, where the Dutchman secured the win and the Englishman finished 13th.

“George probably had a good start and a nice clean first lap and that helps,” he explained. Verstappen.

“But I would say [Hamilton‘s] The car had a little more speed than the midfield.

“But yes, it was difficult to overtake. I mean also when there was only one dry track and when you no longer had, say, a top speed advantage.

“It makes it much harder to assess how far Lewis was behind George. But it’s clear that George did well all weekend.”

Hamilton’s provocations

last year, Red Bull core team Christian Horner emphasized that Verstappen did a good job avoiding answering Hamiltonprovocations.

“Lewis constantly throws his subtle attacks or provocations.” Homer awning Telegraph Sport.

“But I think the great thing about Max is that he doesn’t give a damn. He is who he is. He drives fast. And then he wants to go home and play on his PlayStation. .”