Hamilton doesn't blame Verstappen: 'You have to be ruthless'

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The title battle between Hamilton and Verstappen was particularly exciting. The two fought a duel on the track on several occasions and also regularly ran into each other. This resulted in more than one contact between the two, with the lowest point being Verstappen's crash at Silverstone. Hamilton looks back at the reactions he received.

'"There's so many nice comments, and then trolling and all these different things. If I had sat and read all the comments after Silverstone, the racial abuse. I could've downward spiralled into a negative space. I don't let that volatile medium control my life. You have to be careful because the way the media hype up the drama creates a narrative to the fans,'' says the seven-time world champion.

Bond with Verstappen

Hamilton does not blame Verstappen in this. According to the Mercedes driver, the two deal with each other normally. ''For me and Max, we're seeing each other in the paddock, things are normal. We are two individual drivers who have a lot of common in the sense of how much we love doing what we do, driving."

'On the other side, we're ruthless. He is ruthless, that's how you have to be, I would imagine in business but hopefully with a bit of compassion. But we are fighters out there, there's no friends on track. Some days we get it right, somedays we get it wrong, but what's important is when we get back out, we are human beings and we do keep respect,'' the Briton concludes.