Lewis Hamilton currently sees "smooth sailing" for Max Verstappen in his bid for a second Formula 1 championship.
The Red Bull driver opened up a 63-point lead in the Drivers' standings following his seventh win of the year at Paul Ricard last weekend, this after nearest rival Charles Leclerc had crashed out.
And Hamilton, who of course went toe-to-toe with the Dutchman last season, was asked about the championship battle.
“I am gutted for Charles,” the seven-time world champion said. “He has been doing a great job.
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“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, but a lot can go wrong.
"I would just advise Ferrari to keep their heads down and continue to push.”
As for Verstappen, he wasn't getting carried away about his current advantage, claiming it didn't reflect the relative speed of Red Bull and Ferrari.
“From our side, we know that we have to find, especially over one lap, quite a bit of performance," he said.
"We’ll be working on it. It’s still important to always score points, even on a bad day, which we had in Austria.
“Of course, the lead we have is great, but it’s probably a bit bigger than what it should have been when you look at the car performances between the two cars.”
