Max Verstappen preferred to Lewis Hamilton as F1 legend accused of 'lingering bitterness'

Johnny Herbert has accused a legend of having a "lingering bitterness" towards . His comment comes in the wake of that same fans' favourite's effusive praise for over last weekend.

The racer was not fancied by many for pole position. But he beat both cars to the top of the timesheets in qualifying for the with one of the most impressive Saturday laps of his whole career which just pipped to pole despite being in a slower car.

Verstappen went on to convert that pole into , again by holding off the faster McLarens that were on his tail. But even before that, was clearly left impressed by what the Dutchman had achieved.

"Only he can do it," said the racer. "I think there is no other driver at the moment that can drive a car and put it so high. Higher than the car deserves. I think it was a magical moment for everyone here."

It was when that comment was put to that the Brit suggested Alonso's admiration for Verstappen and his lack of individual praise for Hamilton who won for the first time as a driver in the sprint earlier this year dates back to their unhappy union at McLaren many years ago.

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Hamilton was a rookie in 2007 when he teamed up with Alonso, who was already a double F1 champion at that stage. But being challenged by his young new team-mate led to a significant amount of tension between them and to the Spaniard's exit at the end of that year.

Herbert believes Alonso may still harbour some "lingering bitterness" towards Hamilton as a result. "I understand why Fernando Alonso is very supportive of Max Verstappen - Max and Fernando haven't been team-mates. Lewis and Fernando have been team-mates," he told .

"It was a two-time champion in Alonso who was full of confidence at the top of his game at McLaren in 2007. He expected Hamilton as the young whippersnapper, to be easily beatable - and it didn't happen that way.

"So then that fight happened that season harmed the relationship at the end of the day from that point on. Purely because Lewis came in with a mighty bang and Alonso didn't have it all his own way.

"He's probably still got a lingering bitterness because of what happened at McLaren. I get that as a driver. You do get frustrated when you fully believe that you can do the job, and he probably felt he wasn't supported as much as he felt he should have been by [team principal at the time] Ron Dennis.

"So anyway, respect to Max. He's the guy that's delivering even when he went into a weekend saying, 'I've got no chance'." Verstappen's victory at Suzuka means he is in second place and just one point behind championship leader Norris heading into this weekend's .