Hamilton clear: ‘This has nothing to do with Max’

Lewis Hamilton made it clear that he has no ill-feeling at all towards Max Verstappen after the events of Abu Dhabi.

An epic title battle between the pair came to a dramatic conclusion at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Verstappen passing Hamilton on the final lap to snatch the win and the Drivers’ Championship.

Of course there was a little more to it than that, with Verstappen taking advantage of fresher tyres which he had taken under a late Safety Car period, to pass Hamilton.

Former race director Michael Masi had given Verstappen a clear shot at Hamilton at the restart, having cleared the lapped cars between them.

But Hamilton stressed that Verstappen seized an opportunity like any driver would do, and looks forward to further battles ahead.

SOUND ON! We cannot get enough of this

Take a look at this footage from Lewis Hamilton's first time on track in the W13 pic.twitter.com/Oswm2Md27Y

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) February 19, 2022

“This has nothing to do with Max,” Hamilton told reporters at the Mercedes W13 launch event.

“Max did everything a driver would do given the opportunity he was given.

“He is a great competitor and we will go into another battle like we did last year and conduct ourselves. We will obviously grow from our races and experiences we had last year also this season.

“I have no issues with him.”

The FIA launched an investigation into the events of Abu Dhabi which led to a restructuring of Race Control, with Masi departing and set to move to another position within the FIA, while the race director role will now be shared and rotated between two people.

Those two people are World Endurance Championship race director Eduardo Freitas and former DTM race director Niels Wittich, with Herbie Blash,