After 5 years without any serious competition to his crown, Lewis Hamilton now finds himself engulfed in a fierce rivalry with Red Bull Racing’s Dutch superstar, Max Verstappen. Verstappen has had a fast rise after being the youngest driver to compete in F1 at just 17 years old and winning the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix at 18. Now, Hamilton has a real fight on his hands to continue his incredible dominance over the years and it could go down to the wire this season as he looks to leapfrog Verstappen with 3 races to go.
Closing the Gap in Style
Currently, Britain’s Hamilton sits in the unfamiliar place of second trailing Verstappen by 14 points with 3 races left this season. This was after an astonishing race from seven-time world champion in Brazil that saw him fight back from 10th to pip Verstappen to first place in Sao Paulo despite taking two separate penalties.
A Potential Penalty Being Reviewed
Verstappen escaped penalty after appearing to force Hamilton off the track, but the FIA have plans to investigate the incident further. If there are any consequences for this action in Brazil, it could prove to be devastating for Verstappen who will be feeling the experienced Hamilton breathing down his neck and buoyant after such an impressive showing.
A Fierce Rivalry
This has only added more fuel to the fire in their tense rivalry, which has led to two comings together in a couple of major accidents (fortunately with no major injuries) and a war of words off ofthe track that has kept the media and fans thrilled.
In Silverstone in July, Hamilton was blamed for a crash that ended Verstappen’s race and saw him taken to hospital for checks. Hamilton went on to win the race (overcoming a 10-second penalty) before celebrating wildly to engage Verstappen. Verstappen was then to blame for a coming together in Monza that resulted in Verstappen’s car landing on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes – this goes to show why Mercedes gap insurance is so important as even world-class drivers can find them themselves involved in nasty and costly accidents. Gap insurance will cover the difference between the amount paid by an insurer in a write off (current market value) and the amount originally paid/left on the finance agreement.
The next race is on Sunday the 21st of November in Qatar before the first-ever F1 Grand Prix event in Saudi Arabia two weeks later. The season then culminates on December 12th in Abu Dhabi in what could be the deciding race this season. It will be a thrilling end to the season and it will be interesting to see if Verstappen now has the experience under his belt to keep his cool and get one over on his highly decorated rival.
