Lewis Hamilton hails ‘faultless’ rival Max Verstappen and Red Bull for ‘raising the bar’

Lewis Hamilton has praised his “faultless” rival Max Verstappen after the Red Bull player became World Champion for the third time.

He also hailed Red Bull for “raising the bar” of motorsport.

Lewis bagged the third-placed trophy at the FIA Gala on Friday and delivered a monologue after receiving the trophy.

Mercedes driver Lewis began the speech with, “For everyone, it has been a very, very long season and very much looking forward to the winter break. We’re working very, very hard on making sure we come back strong next year. I must say a big congratulations to Red Bull, Verstappen and Checo, they’ve done an incredible job this year.”

He continued, “Max Verstappen was faultless. Max and all of his team really raised the bar and we have a lot of work to close that gap, but I truly do believe that we can close that gap.”

Meanwhile, Max won the championship for the third time as he he wrapped up the Formula One season in Abu Dhabi.

Max Verstappen delivers monologue after ‘incredible’ 2023 F1 season:

Max and his teammate Sergio Perez along with Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also attended the FIA Gala.

The RB player said, “I think it did hit me a little bit more once I was standing on the podium in Abu Dhabi, you realise the season is over, you don’t get to drive this car anymore, unfortunately.”

Max continued, “It’s been incredible. It’s been great fun as well to work with everyone. We all want to win, we want to do the best we can, but when you’re travelling around so much all over the world you want to also do it with a great group of people, and we definitely have that at Red Bull.”