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Max Verstappen secured a scintillating pole position for Sunday's US GP, edging out Lewis Hamilton. With the two title protagonists starting the race on the front row, many in the press brought up the infamous opening-lap clash between the two drivers at the British Grand Prix earlier this year.
Verstappen was agitated at questions about a potential clash between the two drivers once again and did not take the suggestion lightly during the post-qualifying press conference.
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When the scenario of possibly coming together was pitched to the two drivers, Max Verstappen said:
"Like we always try, as professionals. I don’t see why we always have to keep bringing this up. It’s not like we are the only ones who have touched, you know, in this sport and these things happen, unfortunately, but I think we are on the front row again and everyone is just expecting a great race and that’s what we also expect, I think, as drivers. We just want to have a really good race.”
Hopefully, Max Verstappen and I have a clean start: Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, has a wealth of experience on how to handle such questions and was more easygoing with his response. Speaking about how he was hoping for a cleaner race start for the two drivers, the Brit said:
“Yeah, I hope we’ll make it through Turn 1 and we get a good race. I don’t think it’s all decided on Turn 1. It is all fun and games. We are going to have fun and give it everything as you would expect. There's no real difference to any other part of the season.”
Regardless of what is said, the battle between Hamilton and Max Verstappen is going to be tense. Mercedes was expected to have the better package at this track but the form book has been flipped on its head with Verstappen taking pole.
The last time Max Verstappen began to pull away in the drivers standings, Hamilton was dogged in his determination to snatch the lead from Verstappen at the start. It resulted in the two men making contact with the Dutchman ending up in the barriers.
