{"id":297543,"date":"2023-12-08T22:09:40","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T22:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=297543"},"modified":"2023-12-08T22:09:40","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T22:09:40","slug":"hamilton-shows-true-colours-with-unprompted-verstappen-comment-at-fia-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/racing\/f1\/hamilton-shows-true-colours-with-unprompted-verstappen-comment-at-fia-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton shows true colours with unprompted Verstappen comment at FIA ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen wins third consecutive Formula One world championship<\/h3>\n

Lewis Hamilton showed his class when heaping the praise on Max Verstappen at the FIA Prize Giving Gala in Azerbaijan. The Mercedes star sang the praises of his rival whilst collecting his third-place trophy, but made sure that he sent a word of warning to the rest of the grid when assessing his hopes ahead of next season.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was present at the ceremony for the first time since 1010, with Formula One regulations ruling that the top three in the Drivers\u2019 Championship must attend the gala. The 38-year-old was in high spirits on the night though, despite only picking up a minor trophy.<\/p>\n

Upon receiving his award, Hamilton was asked about how he felt the season panned out for him, to which he replied: \u201cGood evening everyone, I just want to wish everyone a big, congratulations on this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor everyone, it has been a very, very long season and very much looking forward to the winter break. We’re working very, very hard on making sure we come back strong next year, I must say a big congratulations to Red Bull, Verstappen and Checo, they\u2019ve done an incredible job this year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMax Verstappen was faultless. Max and all of his team really raised the bar and we have a lot of work to close that gap, but I truly do believe that we can close that gap.\u201d Hamilton then went on to thank his Mercedes team for the support they have provided him throughout the season, providing them with a major vote of confidence despite recently opening up on the struggles he has endured throughout the year.<\/p>\n

“Thank you also to my team, because they never gave up this year,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe started off with a sister basically of previous years’ car which was not good and not fun to drive for most of the year.<\/p>\n