Lewis Hamilton set to renew battle with Max Verstappen at Imola

World champion Lewis Hamilton received’t change his method regardless of seeing a rival from one other group threaten his and Mercedes’ dominance of Formula One.
Hamilton has received the title in six of the previous seven seasons, along with his stranglehold on the crown solely being interrupted in 2016 by then-Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton’s present teammate, Valtteri Bottas, completed runner-up to the British driver up to now two seasons.
But, after an exciting duel on the season opener in Bahrain, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen seems set to push Hamilton even nearer this yr.
Hamilton doesn’t appear rattled, although.
“We approach every weekend the same as we always have. … If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” Hamilton stated on Thursday forward of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. “We do what we do, we love the challenge. It’s exciting for all of us that we do have such a challenge on our hands and it’s not one that we shy away from.”
Hamilton simply managed to carry off Verstappen to win the season-opening Bahrain GP final month.
The race was successfully determined when Verstappen overtook Hamilton on lap 53 of 56 however went too extensive on a flip and off the monitor limits. He was informed by his group to offer Hamilton the place again, as he risked a time penalty.
Verstappen nonetheless had a couple of laps to catch Hamilton and nearly did, ending 0.74 seconds behind the Mercedes driver.
But the 23-year-old Verstappen appeared calm and philosophical about issues forward of the second race of the fledgling season.
“I think it makes no sense to start smashing things, or throw things first of all,” he stated. “Of course once I crossed the road I used to be upset, however I feel I’ve discovered through the years that there’s nothing misplaced after the primary race.
“The most important thing is to score points, not like last year where you’re off the pace and you don’t even score points, so this time we had a very competitive package in general, and we scored good points. Not first, but still second, so it’s not the end of the world.”
Verstappen definitely seems a pressure to be reckoned with this season. He took an excellent pole place in Sakhir as he continued his type from preseason testing and final yr’s season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, which he received.
His tussle with Hamilton appears to be like set to proceed at Imola, with Verstappen and his group eager to not let one other probability slip them by.
“I think (Bahrain was) definitely an opportunity missed, but I think if we have the fastest car then it’s not going to matter, because then we have 22 races to finish in front of them,” Verstappen stated. “But we’ll see about that.”