‘Clearly things don’t apply for everyone because what I did in terms of defending, two other guys also did and they didn’t get a mention or penalty,’ said Verstappen, alluding to last weekend’s fractious race in Saudi Arabia. As I said, other people do exactly the same thing and get nothing. ‘Why should I change when others are allowed to race like that?’ he reasoned. Asked if he was certain Verstappen would act fairly, Hamilton was non-committal, saying: ‘Er, I don’t put any energy towards that sort of thing. We never thought that we would be neck-and-neck going into the last race.’ Yes, but only a few days earlier, after the Saudi race, Hamilton had called Verstappen ‘crazy’.

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