Why Hill fears the title race could get very nasty

DAMON HILL has warned the 2021 title race has the potential to get nasty, as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battle it out at this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix The pair resume their battle for the drivers’ crown at the inaugural race, the penultimate grand prix of the season, with Verstappen boasting an eight-point advantage over the seven-time world champion.

- Matt Majendie

Two years before he became world champion in 1996, Hill was denied the title after a clash at the season decider in Australia with Michael Schumacher — and he believes things could end in a similar fashion come this season’s finale.

“It’s very difficult to resist the temptation to defend vigorously if you’ve got a points advantage and you’re in the lead,” he said. “I just don’t know how you would let that through your fingers.

“We saw it with Alain Prost [at the 1989 season-ending Japanese Grand Prix] . You’d never expect that with Prost , the mildmannered, meek, gentle guy, he was to close the door on Ayrton Senna, but that certainly looks like what happened.”

Victory for Hamilton this weekend, along with the fastest lap at a circuit expected to suit Mercedes, would leave him level on points with Verstappen going into the final race in Abu Dhabi a week on. But Hill insists Verstappen is still in the driving seat to clinch a first world title.