FORMULA ONE world champion Max Verstappen took aim at Lewis Hamilton with a cheeky dig after his Brit rival only qualified fifth for the Bahrain GP.
Verstappen will start Sunday’s race on the front row after Ferrari man Charles Leclerc took pole for the first race of the season.
Verstappen aimed a veiled swipe at Hamilton with his comment after qualifying
Hamilton struggled in qualifying but still performed better than Mercedes team-mate Russell
Hamilton was out-qualified by both Ferrari’s AND both Red Bull’s, while team-mate George Russell was way down in ninth.
And after securing his position on the front row for the season opener, Verstappen was quizzed by reporters on whether he was disappointed to see Mercedes underperforming.
The Dutchman cheekily replied to the question “very, very [disappointed],” as per to Formula 1 News.
A poor qualifying for Mercedes came after Hamilton declared the team have “a lot of problems” going into the new season.
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The 37-year-old even claimed that it would take as many as four races for Mercedes to challenge for top spot on the podium.
Qualifying for the Bahrain GP also incidentally took place on the same day that the FIA concluded Verstappen’s dramatic victory on the final day of the 2021 campaign was down to “human error”.
Fans didn’t hold back after the report was published, mercilessly trolling the Dutchman for the circumstances in which he won his maiden world title.
One sarcastically wrote: “Max Verstappen won a Championship due to ‘human error’. Congratulations.”
Another added: “Congratulations to max verstappen for being the first ever #HumanErrorChampion.”
Meanwhile the hashtag “HumanErrorChampion” was trending on Twitter.
The drama added to the feud between Verstappen and Hamilton ahead of race day in Bahrain, although it doesn’t appear that the pair will come close on the track.
With Mercedes lacking pace all weekend Hamilton may spend more time looking over his shoulder and defending the chasing pack, rather than challenging the Ferrari’s and Red Bull’s up the road.
Lights out at the Bahrain International Circuit is at 3pm UK time for the 2022 F1 season opener.
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