Ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix weekend Lewis Hamilton has taunted championship leader and title rival Nico Riosberg by claiming that only his bad luck with mechanical issues has enabled the German to have a serious crack at the title.
When asked if he felt that Rosberg had raised his game compared to previous seasons, Hamilton insisted, “Nope. But I’ve had a lot of failures. That’s the only difference.”
Indeed Hamilton has had the brunt of the bad luck in the Silver Arrows camp, with mechanical issues compromising his races in Russia, China, Belgium and Malaysia.
Hamilton explained, “I think if both our cars had been fully reliable all year long we would have had pretty much the same battle we’ve had all last year and the year before, so I don’t see it being any different.”
Rosberg is on record saying that he is taking each race as they come and is not looking at the championship.
But Hamilton believes this is merely a ploy by his teammate, “That is just a tactic that he has taken on board this year. Obviously that helps him stay focused on the job at hand and different people have different ways of dealing with pressure. Obviously there is pressure there and that’s just how he’s handling it.”
Rosberg leads Hamilton in the championship by 26 points with three races remaining and the reigning world champion knows exactly what’s required to retain his title.
“I have to win all the races. I knew that at the last race, so people can interpret it anyway they want, but I know that I’ve got to win and I’m just going to try to do the best job I can in terms of getting in my car, qualifying and driving time on the track.”
“I’ll really try to apply everything I’ve learned over these years, and if there was ever a time for me to be the best I’ve ever been, it’s at these last three races,” added Hamilton who scored his 50th grand prix win in the USA last week.
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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