Lewis Hamilton is struggling to cope as he finally faces a serious challenger to his recent run of utter dominance in Formula 1. That is the claim of Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko, who thinks Max Verstappen’s pace is the reason that Mercedes’ Hamilton is suddenly making key mistakes. “He had no consistent opposition before, but he has that now with Red Bull and Max Verstappen,” team official Marko told the German broadcaster n-tv. Marko said he was surprised to see how hard Hamilton defended his position from Verstappen at the start of the most recent race at Imola. “I believe this will be the order of the day with both Mercedes and us pushing development of the 2021 car at full throttle until the summer,” said Marko.

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