Speaking to Sky Italy ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, Hamilton questioned the pedigree of Verstappen’s teammates and claimed ♌the Dutchman’s dominance has been “blown up much more” than his own spell of success with Mercedes. 

"It's actually interesting because I was running this morning and I was thinking ab🎃out ♔this," Hamilton said.

"The narrative, that goes through the media… you know when I qualified half a second, six tenths ahead of Valtteri, they didn't say the same thing as they say today when Max qualifies six tenths ahead of 🌞Perez - 🍸it's blown up much more.

“Andᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ in my personal opinion, Valtteri, and actually all my team-mates, have been stronger than the 🥂team-mates that Max has had.

"Jenso💜n [Button], Fernando [Alonso], George [Russell], Valtteri… Nico [R🧸osberg] - I've had so many.

"These guys have all been very cꦯonsistent, and Max has not raced against anyone like that.”

When asked about the comments, two-time world champion Verstappen said he reckoned Hamilton is ♍“jea🦄lous” of his current F1 success. 

ꦜ“Maybe he's a little jealous of my current success? He may think he's winning something with it, but it really doesn't matter to me,” Verstappen was quote🌳d as saying by Dutch outletsand . 

“You can keep shouting and screaming that it's not 🍨that special what we're doing right now, but you'd better be more concerned with yourself. Because that's all you can influence.”

Verstappen, who could claim a record-breaking 10th consecutive victory at Monza, added: “I think they [Mercedes] have a very hard time dealing with loss. That’s kind of the problem when you've won everything for so many years in a row.&nbs🐼p;

“But you also have to be realistic. If it's not in it, then it's not in it. And then, I think, you have to be 🀅able to appreciate what others are doi🔯ng. 

“We have al🌞ways done that in the years that Mercedes was so good. We said to each other: we have to work harder, because we are not good enough compared to Mercedes."