Hamilton proud to have avoided Vettel-like mistakes

Lewis Hamilton says he feels proud to have avoided making the same kind of mistakes that have blighted Formula 1 title rival Sebastian Vettel’s 2018 season.

Hamilton opened up a 40-point buffer to Vettel with six rounds remaining following his seventh victory of the season in Singapore, despite Ferrari appearing to boast the faster overall package throughout the campaign.

A series of mistakes, including crashing out of the lead of the German Grand Prix and tangling with Hamilton on the opening lap in Italy, have acted as a severe set-back to Vettel’s title aspirations, but Hamilton insists Mercedes has not “lucked in” to its current championship position.

“I don’t see look at it and think that we’ve lucked in,” Hamilton stressed. “When Vettel hit the wall in practice, damaged the car and lost running on track, that’s not us lucking in.

“I take a lot of pride in making sure I don’t put myself in those positions and I know the team is relying on me as the team is relying on him. There’s a lot of pressure on us drivers.

“It’s only small percentages and you get it wrong and there’s big ramifications. As a team we honestly don’t spend any time wasted wondering what they are doing, or if they are feeling pressure or happy or unhappy.

“There’s nothing we can do about them, all we can do is be the best we can be over a weekend.”

While Hamilton holds what appears to be a comfortable margin in the championship, the Briton remains wary about a Ferrari resurgence.

“There’s still a lot of points available,” he explained. “You have to stay positive and hope and belief are the two things are the two things that you always need to make sure you have.

“I’m sure they [Ferrari] will go away from this weekend as a difficult weekend and will come back strong fighting in the next one but I can assure you as a team we will we’re not shipping out.

“We are not cocky or over-confident, we are being diligent and working as hard as we can. We want to keep hammering away as we are.

“If they have an answer to that we don’t mind that, we want that battle and if they don’t we also don’t mind that.”