LEWIS HAMILTON reckons Max Verstappen is cruising to his second world championship, saying the Dutchman is "smooth sailing".
Verstappen, 24, has a 63-point lead in the title race after nearest rival Charles Leclerc crashed out while leading last Sunday's French GP.
Hamilton battled the Red Bull man for the title last year but is now over 100 points adrift with 10 races remaining.
The 37-year-old Brit said: "I am gutted for Charles. He has been doing a great job.
"But it is not easy to have that performance and pace and be able to maintain it. I feel for the whole team because I know what that can feel like.
"It is a massive gap to Max so that is pretty smooth-sailing for him in that space.
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"But a lot can go wrong. I would just advise Ferrari to keep their heads down and continue to push."
Hamilton was second in France – his fourth podium in a row – as his Mercedes team show signs of improving after a poor start to the season.
And the Brit is hoping for continued improvements at this weekend's Hungarian GP, with the seven-time world champion drawing parallels with his 2009 season at McLaren, where scored an unlikely victory at the Hungaroring.
Hamilton added: "I remember that year very clearly.
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"I remember arriving back from winter training and being in a meeting with the guys, and they were like 'we have already hit our downforce target'.
"And I was like 'wow, really? That probably means we have not set the target high enough'.
"I got in the car in a test at Portimao and it was horrendous to drive, the worst car I have ever driven. But we chipped away at it, and we got our first win in Budapest.
"The start of this year was very similar. Sitting down it looked glorious. We had a lot of performance on the car, and a lot of confidence that the car was going to be good.
"But we got in the car, it was bouncing and it has taken a long time to fix that.
"So far we have not made that big step that we did in 2009 to win in Budapest but who knows? We are not giving up.
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"We are staying pedal to the metal. Maybe our car will be good in Hungary, maybe we will be closer to Red Bull and Ferrari.
"I hope so much that we will be because I love that track."
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