Lewis Hamilton left a comment under Max Verstappen's celebratory post after the Red Bull driver won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen started the race in Interlagos in 17th position, having qualified 12th in a chaotic qualifying session before dropping a further five places due to a grid penalty for exceeding his engine allocation.
But the Dutchman moved up to 10th place by the end of lap two, and pulled off a series of impressive moves to move himself up to sixth.
Verstappen elected to stay out an extra lap when race leaders George Russell, Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda all pitted, and the Dutchman was in second behind Esteban Ocon when a red flag was shown for a crash involving Franco Colapinto.
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The race stoppage allowed Red Bull to change his intermediate tyres while keeping him in second, and while there was some fortune in that, Verstappen overtook Ocon at the second safety car restart and secured a commanding victory while repeatedly reeling off fastest laps
Hamilton, meanwhile, had a horror weekend in Interlagos driving a Mercedes which he described to be like 'a plank of wood'.
The Brit could not get out of Q1 in qualifying due to a lack of grip, while he had major issues with bouncing on the relaid Interlagos surface even in the wet conditions.
Hamilton slid off the track on numerous occasions during the race, but did manage to secure a point for P10 in the Grand Prix as he battled with both his car and the wet conditions.
But the Mercedes driver was still in a positive mood with other drivers after the race, and drove past the Alpine pair Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly on the reconnaissance lap to congratulate them on their second and third-placed finishes.
And he also left a comment on his former great rival Verstappen's Instagram post after the race.
The seven-time world champion simply wrote: "Amazing drive, congrats."
The post reached 37,000 likes overnight, and now has over 100,000 likes.
In response to Hamilton's comment on Monday morning, Verstappen wrote: "Thankyou man, appreciate it."
The Dutchman's 63-point lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship standings means he is now set to win his fourth consecutive title, with only a maximum of 86 points available from the remaining three race weekends.
As for Hamilton, he dropped behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell in the standings, with his fellow Brit finishing the race in Brazil in fourth place.
That championship battle is set to go right down to the wire in what are Hamilton's final three races for the team before he moves to Ferrari from 2025.
Topics: Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Formula 1
Ryan Smart