David Coulthard says the “amount of little incidents” Lewis Hamilton has had this Formula 1 season shows the pressure he is under from Max Verstappen.
Hamilton, who is trailing the Red Bull driver by six points in the title race with six races to go, has been involved in a number of small incidents, as well as two crashes with Verstappen.
“A remarkable amount of little incidents, he gets away with them,” Coulthard told Channel 4. “Whether it was running into the gravel at Imola, touching the barrier and being able to reverse out and various others, [hitting] the pit wall in Russia most recently where [there was] minimal damage to the car.
“That is the remarkable thing, you don’t really see him drop the ball massively, lots of little incidents, but it shows he’s under pressure.”
Hamilton was leading Verstappen by two points heading into the Turkish Grand Prix on 10 October but a grid penalty and an untimely pit stop saw the seven-time world champion finish fifth. Dutchman Verstappen, meanwhile, finished second.
Hamilton was fuming after Mercedes insisted he made a pit stop when he was third in the race, with the tactic seeing him slip to fifth.
The defending champion was heard on the team radio saying: “F***, man, why did you give up that space?
“We shouldn’t have come in, man. We have got massive graining [on the new tyres]. I TOLD YOU.”
Hamilton will next have a chance to regain the championship lead at the United States Grand Prix on 24 October.
