Two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen says that it's currently advantage Lewis Hamilton in the F1 title race, despite the Briton being eight points behind Max Verstappen in the championship standings.
Mercedes star Hamilton has won the last two races in Brazil and Qatar respectively to cut the deficit to his championship challenger Verstappen back down into single figures, but knows there is still work to do if he is to win an eighth crown.
With two races left in the season, there's not a lot of time remaining to do so, of course, but his Silver Arrows car is looking very rapid indeed, and Hakkinen believes the advantage currently lies with the defending champ.
"If Formula 1 was a tennis match I would say that it was ‘advantage Hamilton’ following his dominant wins in Brazil and Qatar,” the Finn wrote in his regular Unibet column.
“Although Max Verstappen leads the World Championship by 8 points, Mercedes has responded by giving Lewis Hamilton a car with which he can really fight to defend his title.”
Certainly, the Mercedes appears to be flying at the hands of Hamilton at the moment with them finding extra performance in recent weeks that has left him completely untouchable.
Red Bull need to respond despite Verstappen's points lead, then, and we'll see how they do in terms of that in Saudi Arabia at the start of December.
