Ahead of this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix, Hamilton was asked if he felt the pressure of the title fight👍 was affecting Verstappen after the pair crashed out of the Italian Grand Prix last time out. 

The seven-time world champion said he could “empathise” with his mai𒁃n rival having lived through the same exper𓆏ience earlier in his career amid a fierce battle against then McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen for the 2007 world title.

“Obviously he won’t admit to it and I’m not g✤oing to make an assumption,” Hamilton said.

“But I remember what it was like, when I had my first one, and it definitely mounted up. It was difficult. It was intense. I was going tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚhrough a lot of different emotions, I didn’t always handle it the best.

“And that’s to be expected. There’s a lot of pressure from 𝔍you working in a big team, there’s a lot of self expec🌸tation and pressure because the desire to win is huge. So, I empathise and understand that.”

When informed of Hamilton’s comments and asked for a response later in Thursday’s press conferences, Verstappen sarcasticly quipped: “Yeah, I’m so nervous I can barely sleep. I𝓰 mean, it’s so horrible, to fight for a title. I really hate it. Yeah.

“No, I think if someone knows me, I think I’m very relaxed about all those things and I really can💜’t be bothered, I’m very chilled.

“It’s the best feeling ever to have a car, a great car, where you go into ever🌺y weekend and then you can fight for a win. It doesn’t matter if you’re just leading a championsh𒁃ip or not.

“I think, those comments, I mean, it just shows you that he really doesn’t ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚknow me – which is fine. I mean I also don’t need to know him, how he is, fully.

“I just focus on myself, a🐼nd I really enjoy it out there out front, and hopefully of course we can do that for a very long time.”

Hamilton said after the Monza collision that he was “surprised” Verstappen had walked away without checking on hi🧸s condition after the Red Bull driver’s car landed on top of🍨 his, striking the Briton’s helmet.

But Verstappen, who labelled Hamilton’s po🍬st-Brit♎ish Grand Prix victory celebrations as “disrespectful” while he was in hospital for precautionary checks, says he thinks people were hypocritical.

“I mean there are a lot of hypocrites in the worl🌊d that’s for sure,” Verstappen said. “I mean I jumped out of the car, I looked to the left and he’s of course still trying to reverse, shaking the wheel, trying to get under away under my car so I think he was absolutely fine.

“Al🍷so flying to America on Monday or Tuesday to attend a Gala I th🐓ink you only do that if you feel fine so I think already there, everything was all under control.”

Asked whether he would consider changing his approach to racing Hamilton wheel-to-wheel in future given the championship piꦺcture, Verstappen replied: "I think it goes both ways, doesn’t it? It’s not only me when we are racing each other.”

And in response to continued questions about whether he believes their riva♔lry could turn nasty, Verstappen said: “Not from my side, I’m pretty calm and chilled about everything. It’s more the questions I keep getting about it.

“I think we’re all professional enough to leave th🌌is behind in Monza and just continue again here in Sochi, and the races after that.”