After Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton has given his first admission that the Dutchman is in clear pole position to win the F1 championship this season.
Hamilton has been left falling behind in the drivers’ standings as the Mercedes man finished fourth in Austria as Verstappen made it four wins out of the previous five races.
The seven-time champion had been 14 points clear of his Red Bull rival after the first four races of the calendar but momentum has firmly swung back in Verstappen’s favour.
With an unassailable 32-point gap, the 23-year-old is in control of the title charge this season however, with the unpredictability of the pandemic, it’s unsure as to how many races will be remaining in the calendar.
Speaking to the BBC, Hamilton conceded that there is a lot of work for him to do to oust Verstappen at the top of the leaderboard.
“Max is walking away with it right now and there is not really much we can do about it.”
“They have added so much performance,” Hamilton said, “and we have a lot of work to do to try and close that gap.
“I hope our car feels better [at Silverstone]. It has been pretty poor here the last two weeks – it has definitely been a painful few races. But we will keep our heads up and keep trying.
“We will work as much as we can to improve in the next couple of weeks. We have been massively down at this track. It will be interesting to see how it is in the other races to go.”