In an exclusive interview with Autosport Magazine, the Dutch driver talked about his rivalry with Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen was asked who he thinks is the best driver of the grid.

“Man, you know it's super hard, but of course you have to give credit to Lewis.

“[For] the way he has dealt with all the years, to always come back and be honoured and win that amount of races and championships. You definitely cannot go around Lewis.

“But, of course, there are still a lot of other people in Formula 1, I think who are very good, very strong, and would have been very good in that car as well.

“But still, of course, the way Lewis has won and also sometimes in tricky races - like last year in Turkey, to win that race, I think he did very well.

“Yeah, definitely he is one of the best ever in Formula 1.”

Lewis Hamilton is the active driver with most championships and records, adding more every race, from the last seven seasons of Formula 1 he has won six, equalling F1 legend Michael Schumacher and one championship away from the all-time record.

Verstappen told he does not seek to imitate Lewis when examining where he can drive even better.

“I don't look at it like that..

“I first look at what I could have done better or different - [after] every single race.

“And then... I do watch other people and review stuff, but I am not someone who copies. I'm myself.

“Because if you copy stuff from others, you're always going to be behind first of all - because you're not innovating and becoming better than them.

“Of course you can just look at it, you can observe it. But at the end of the day, I'm myself and I think that works the best for me - to be myself.".