Hamilton: I have a marathon not a sprint mentality

The two have gone wheel-to-wheel in each of the opening four races without incident, with the seven-time champion claiming three wins to Verstappen's one.

The Dutchman has been impressive at race starts so far, passing Hamilton for the lead at Imola and Barcelona, although Hamilton was able to recover and claim the victory in Spain thanks to a good strategy call by the Mercedes team.

Looking ahead to the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, Hamilton explained that he employs a "marathon not a sprint" mentality in combat situations.

“I think I’ve done well to avoid all the incidents so far,” he said. “We’ve got 19 more to go and we could connect, hopefully not.

“The good thing, I think, there is a nice balanced amount of respect between us. I think perhaps, as you know, he feels perhaps he has a lot to prove. I’m not necessarily in the same boat there.

“I’m more long term, kind of, ‘it’s a marathon not a sprint’ sort of mentality. Which is ultimately why I have the stats that I have. So I’ll continue with that and I’ll do everything to make sure that we avoid connecting.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said earlier this week that Red Bull will be the favourites in Monaco and Hamilton referenced the 2019 race, where he won a tight contest from Verstappen, as an example of the fine margins between the two outfits at the street circuit.

“We don’t know what to expect,” he said.

“Red Bull were incredibly close two years ago. It’s a much different car, we have different tyres. Red Bull are going to be very, very hard to beat this weekend. This is a track that has always been strong for them and, given how close the gap is between us, you can imagine this weekend they could be ahead.

“But we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that’s not the case.”