The seven-time world champion emerged as Verstappen’s main challenger in the sprint at the United States Grand Prix after snatching second place from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the exit of the first corner.
Hamilton appeared to be able to match Verstappen in pace terms for the first few laps but, as tyre degradation kicked in, his Red Bull rival was able to extend his advantage to comfortably pull clear by the chequered flag.
While the run of form left Hamilton in no doubt that Red Bull is still the class of the field, he has said that the things he took on board from running so closely to Verstappen will be a help to his Mercedes squad in understanding what makes the RB19 so good.
“It was a good position to be able to watch what Max’s car was doing, and how it was behaving,” said Hamilton.
“So, I got to watch for a while and see where they are particularly strong, which we can obviously see that on GPS or something like that.
“But still at least [it was valuable] to know where we are, if there's anywhere we're stronger, and where we’re weaker, so I can download that to my team. And at the end, I think everyone's tyres were struggling towards the end of that stint.”
Source: Autosport