Lewis Hamilton says his battle with Max Verstappen for this year’s drivers’ title does not yet live up to his rivalry with Sebastian Vettel. “Racing with Max, he doesn’t have the background Seb has,” Hamilton said. “Knowing how hard it is to be where we are today,” he said. The seven-time champion overturned the odds to beat Verstappen at the first race of the season in Bahrain last month, even though the Red Bull was a faster car. Verstappen said he saw finishing second in Bahrain as a “missed opportunity”. Verstappen said: “They are very close [to us] even if they don’t say it. [Bahrain] is definitely an opportunity missed but if we have the fastest car it won’t matter, because we have 22 races to finish in front of them.

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