Lewis Hamilton teases Max Verstappen with 'act like a world champion' jab

Lewis Hamilton has taken a cheeky swipe at Max Verstappen by telling his old F1 title rival to “act like a world champion” following their collision at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton and Verstappen came to blows in the closing stages of last Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring while battling over third place and the final spot on the podium. 

Attempting to launch a late overtake on Hamilton, Verstappen locked up and made tyre-to-tyre contact with Hamilton, launching the reigning world champion dramatically airborne and into the run-off area.

Hamilton finished third, while Verstappen slipped to fifth, having endured a frustrating race in which he heavily criticised the performance of his car and Red Bull’s strategy with a series of foul-mouthed rants over team radio.

“You have to be a team leader, a team member,” Hamilton said on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

“Maybe not so much a team leader but more so just always remember you are a teammate with lots of people and you have to act like a world champion.”

When asked what it means to ‘act like a world champion’, a laughing Hamilton replied: “That’s a good question. Not like it was last weekend.”

Verstappen was seen telling Hamilton they would “talk” about their incident in the media pen after the race in Hungary, but the Briton said this has not yet happened.

“We didn’t talk afterwards,” he explained. “We went to the stewards and that’s it. Yeah we’ve not had a talk.

“I don’t know if we will, if we get time. Maybe we’ll talk in the [drivers’] parade this weekend, maybe. I’ve not felt like there’s necessarily a need to, but there might be something he wants to say. But we didn’t get the time to do it."

Hamilton ‘very surprised’ by stewards verdict

Both Verstappen and Hamilton escaped punishment after the stewards concluded neither driver had been “predominantly at fault”.

However, they did determine that Hamilton “could have done more to avoid the collision”, a conclusion which has left the Mercedes driver puzzled.

“I was really, really surprised by it,” Hamilton said. “I think already I was very relaxed about the situation. Just saying look, it was just a racing incident, let’s just move on.

“But considering one car was in control and one car was not in control at the time. Obviously when all the wheels are locked you are not in control.

“And if you look at the replay, at the end of the whole move I’m very, very far from the apex, so there’s a lot of room on the right hand side.

"So I was very, very surprised at the stewards. I don’t know who typed it up but probably that’ll be a question when I speak to them at some stage.”