Hamilton to take "balanced approach" with F1 title in mind

Lewis Hamilton says he will take a “balanced approach” between aggression and conservatism into Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix as he looks to protect his Formula 1 world championship lead.

The Mercedes driver holds a 36-point lead over Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who he will up alongside in fourth place on the second row of the Spielberg grid after picking up a penalty for impeding Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen during qualifying.

Speaking prior to his penalty being confirmed, Hamilton - who qualified second behind polesitter Charles Leclerc - said: “I try to have a balanced approach between aggression and conservative.

“Of course I will be pushing for the win tomorrow, that’s ultimately always the goal and it should be nothing more and nothing less.

“As I said, it’s not going be easy to get close to be passing the Ferraris.

“I think they’ve been very very quick all weekend but of course I will be giving it absolutely everything. I don’t like ever settling for anything but first.”

Both Mercedes drivers will start the race on Pirelli’s Medium compound tyre, while Ferrari opted for a different strategy, with Leclerc beginning on Softs, and Hamilton hopes his team’s decision will prove to be the right one.

“I think it will be quite a fun race,” he added. “This is a track that you can follow a little a bit more but still it will be quite difficult at the top between the few of us.

“I think the Ferraris are particularly very quick on the long runs, not only on the short runs so it will not be so easy to keep up with Charles but I gave it everything I had.

“If I can stay in the tow, for example and be there - if we’re on a different tyre, maybe we will be able to offset each other.

“Them starting on that tyre would tend to think they are going for a two [stop race] most likely unless that tyre goes a lot further than we anticipate. I don’t have the numbers but on the Medium tyre hopefully we will able to go longer.

“I think a one and two [stop race] are very close so how you work them, safety cars and all those different things, it will be interesting but at least it makes it interesting hopefully.”