Formula 1 pundit Martin Brundle believes Lewis Hamilton knows he has to remain aggressive in order to beat Max Verstappen, as the season approaches its climax. The championship protagonists collided for the second time this year last time out at Monza, with both retiring from the race. Verstappen was deemed predominantly at fault for the incident and has been given a three-grid place penalty for this weekend’s race at the Russian GP. "I think there was a bit of history there [at Monza] from Imola, from Barcelona, from Silverstone, and Lewis knows he can't yield to Max," Brundle told Sky Sports. "Max is aggressive, one way or another, they're going to keep meeting in the middle. "I think psychologically they've got to show each other some fairly robust elbows. They've got to keep it sensible, of course, but we know how aggressive Max is and Lewis knows that. "Lewis knows you've got to fight fire with fire. If we see this again, I won't be at all surprised, [since] we've got two truly great drivers in very similarly paced cars, that they are going to be sharing the same piece of tarmac again." There were claims that Verstappen failed to check on Hamilton's condition following their collision, where the Dutchman's Red Bull was pitched onto Hamilton's W12. However, imagery and replays have shown Verstappen looked at the Mercedes and saw Hamilton attempting to reverse out of the gravel. Brundle believes once Verstappen saw Hamilton trying to move his car, it was not entirely necessary for him to communicate with the seven-time World Champion. "Finding reverse gear in a Formula 1 car is not the easiest thing to do and Lewis was really trying to reverse out," added Brundle. "I think Max recognised that, 'He must be OK, he's put it in reverse, he's trying to get out of the accident'. "I don't think there's a whole lot of love lost between them. Obviously Max was fairly bruised, literally, in the incident at Silverstone at Copse corner at very high speed. "I don't think he showed a huge amount of concern, but he quite clearly knew that Lewis was functioning, had found reverse gear [and] was applying it."
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