Lewis Hamilton’s season is in tatters, but not everyone’s unhappy about that.

As Max Verstappen claimed his second victory of the season at the Emilia Romagna, Hamilton - the seven-time champion - finished an unflattering 13th as he continued to have troubles with his Mercedes. All the while teammate George Russell finished fourth - the same position he is in on the overall standings.

Hamilton, meanwhile, is in seventh spot (28 points) on the overall standings, a whopping 60 points behind Charles Leclerc and 31 behind Verstappen, who is in second.

Verstappen was at his blunt best following the race, describing Hamilton’s troubles as no new thing.

“They’ve been slow all year so for me it’s not really anything exciting, it just happens.”

Then Verstappen’s team advisor Helmet Marko twisted the knife in further.

“I mean, he was lapped by us,” Marko told SSN’s Craig Slater. “Maybe he is thinking he should have stopped last year!”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was less provocative.

“Obviously very tough for him today,” Horner said of Hamilton.

“He’s not forgotten how to drive - it’s only five races ago they were fighting in Abu Dhabi.

“They’ll sort their issues out I’m sure. We don’t write anyone off in this championship because there’s such a long, long way to go.”

Hamilton remains “100 per cent” committed to Mercedes and insists he has no plans to retire, having signed a two-year contract extension following last season’s epic and controversial battle with Verstappen.

“There is nowhere else I want to be. Just because we have hit a rough patch, it is not in my DNA to back out,” he told reporters following the weekend’s result.

“We can fix this. It is going to be a painful year that we are going to have to ride out together.”

2016 champion Nico Rosberg backed his former teammate Hamilton to respond.

“That was tough to see Lewis in that state... he’s really down which is understandable,” Rosberg said.

“It is a long season but they’re nowhere with that car; they’re not even going to be able to fight for race wins any time soon. So, it’s difficult for Lewis to keep his motivation up.

“I think he’ll manage because he really is a fighter and remember there’s always that thing that he still wants to beat his team-mate. That’s really, really important to him.

“With George performing so well, that could be the biggest motivator for Lewis to just keep going and keep fighting.”