A dominant win by 9.57 seconds for Verstappen in last weekend’s Canadian GP drew the two-time reigning champion level on 41 victories with Ayrton Senna, Hamilton’s racing hero.
Coincidentally, the Montreal venue is also where Hamilton matched Senna’s then-outright qualifying record of 65 pole positions in 2017. The Brit now holds 103 poles, equal to his tally of GP wins.
But Hamilton, 38, believes these scores could tumble in due course given the “amazing job” that 25-year-old Verstappen is so far pulling off during his “incredible career”. He, therefore, urged his Mercedes team to “slow” Red Bull down to preserve his records.
Hamilton said: “Max has been doing an amazing job. He's had such an incredible career so far and he's for sure going to surpass [Senna's figures].
“[We’re] working on getting the car to where it needs to be so we can slow him down.”
He added: “He's got a very long career ahead of him so absolutely [Verstappen can eclipse my record]. Ultimately, records are there to be broken. And he's got an amazing team.
“But as I said, we’ve got to work harder to try and continue to extend it. I hope we get to have, at least within the last period of time in my career, some more close racing.”
Source: Autosport