Formula 1 world championship leader Lewis Hamilton says he i๊s more wary about racing wheel-to-wheel with Max Verstappen as he feels the Red Bull driver is a “magnet” to incidents.

Hamilton and Verstappen clash♛ed at the start of Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix as they arrived into Turn 2 side-by-side, with both drivers forced to take to the grass in order to avoid a ful🌌l-on collision while battling over third place.

Hamilton recovered from fifth to take a brilliant victory following a bold strategy gamble by Mercedes, while Verstappen suffered a puncture in a separate collision with Valtteri Bottas ju꧃st a handful of laps after making contact with Hamilton.

Speaking in the post-race drivers’ press conference, Hamilton joked that he knew hꦏe was going to be “torpedoed” by Verstappen.

“I think eꦏvery driver is slightly different,” Hamilton explained when𒅌 asked how he approaches racing with Verstappen.

“Some are smarter; some are like very smart, aggressive and some are silly with it. And so, through those experiences of racing with people, you give some more space and others you don’t have to. They’reꦿ quite respectful.

“B♈ut yeah, Max, it’s very likely you’re going to come together with Max if you don’t give him extra spacꦫe, so most of the time you do.

“But as I said, in my experience, I didn’t have a lot of space to give him extra space. But I don’t think it was intentional or anything l🔯ike that.

“It was just… 💃he’s a magnet for those kind of things but yeah, nonetheless, I managed to keep the car together and in a straight lineღ, fortunately.”

Askeꦬd if he shared the same opinion as𓄧 Hamilton, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who finished second in Mexico City, replied: “Yes and yes.

When pressed further to expand on his answer, Vettel addedꦚ: “No, just copy-paste. It’s true.”

But Verstappen’s Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was quick to plꦇay down the incidents and defended his driver.

“It’s hard 💙racing w🎃ith Lewis, they were both racing hard, and that’s what it’s all about,” Horner said.

“The move with Bottas was a tough♍ one because arguably he’d done the pass, he got clipped on the way out of the corner with Valtteri’s front wing, so it was just unlucky.

“Some days that 🤪can go for you, some days it can go agains꧙t you.”