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Lewis Hamilton has cautioned the McLaren drivers in the title fight, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, about Verstappen’s “cut-throat” nature as the three racers enter the final five races of the championship.

The Australian driver is ahead in the championship by a 14-point margin from Norris, while the Red Bull star stands 40 points behind off the lead on the back of strong recent results in the past four races.

Hamilton, who engaged in a heated championship battle with his rival Verstappen in 2021, commented: “In such a situation it's challenging, expectations are immense. At this point you must put your blinkers up and block everything from external sources.

“It’s necessary to be ruthless and this describes Verstappen is, he intends to claim this from the McLaren duo if they fail to match his intensity.

“You have to dig deep to fend off Max’s caliber and the car he is in. But also for the McLaren drivers to come out ahead, steady performance is crucial, and you've seen that with Verstappen lately.”

Hamilton said that Max was in the most comfortable position as the racer in pursuit. He was trailing by 104 points of Piastri following the event in the Netherlands last month.

“You have three highly skilled competitors and I can't predict how they're going to behave,” he stated.

“Verstappen has claimed the title four times so he is aware of the experience and playing the chaser is considerably less stressful than holding the lead.

“When you're in the lead and another driver is gaining, that creates pressure instead of if you're chasing and expectations are low. In the lead you have everything to lose.”

Russell, victorious in the Singapore Grand Prix two races ago, commented: “Piastri and Norris are in the leading car so they control their destiny. However, Verstappen and Red Bull are performing excellent work so they cannot be ruled out.

“They displayed glimpses of impressive performance at the start of the year but they lacked consistency, but currently race after race they are smashing it.”

Fair Competition at the McLaren Team

The teammates go into the last rounds with no team orders with each other and absent of internal mandates in place – except for steering clear of incidents between them.

Norris was subject to potential penalties following a clash with his teammate as he overtook for third place from him at the first sequence of corners in Singapore.

After the incident involving both drivers during the sprint race start at the American race last weekend, these have now been removed.

“I bear some responsibility from my side during the sprint race and we are opening this weekend within a clean slate for both of us, simply heading out and going racing,” said Piastri.

Piastri, the winner of Zandvoort, has seen his points margin decrease following defeats to his teammate in each of the past four races, but he admitted he was also taken aback Verstappen had entered the title battle in such a short time.

“The streak Verstappen has shown from Monza onward was somewhat unexpected,” he explained.

“There were moments in the early stages but additionally inconsistencies. It’s known they have been throwing various improvements on the RB19 trying to improve it but Verstappen has arrived the championship battle sooner than anticipated.”

However, when asked whether he was worried regarding Max, Piastri responded: “It isn’t truly something I think about. Max has been steady and competitive in recent races but there is no benefit in focusing on or thinking about that.

“What will assist my championship hopes is extract the maximum from my driving, my machine, McLaren. Verstappen is there, he’s contending but finally it has no effect on how I go about competition.”

Norris stated: “Max displayed strong performances recently. Red Bull has been delivering better than we have.

“Verstappen has secured several events and he is a champion. One would be foolish to not want to give Max a chance.

“At the minute, they are in better form, on several occasions they have been quicker. Yet, we can still succeed. Our car is superior for the remaining races and we need to make use of that.”

Max commented: “It's clear our form has been excellent, certainly enjoying it a lot more in this way and we aim to continue this streak into the future. We are aware we need to be perfect through the final races to be in contention, but we simply aim to get the most from each race and find our position.”

Team Tactics ‘Pretty Funny’

The Red Bull team were penalized a fine post the American GP, after a team personnel was on the grid past the allowed time as he attempted to clear the adhesive used by McLaren on the pit wall to assist Lando position his car accurately.

Norris said he considered the incident “quite funny, particularly since I never used the guide, making it even funnier”.

He added: “I used it for assistance. There was no need at the race. We were aware that Red Bull was attempting this. {They tried to take tape off