Hamilton braced for “incredibly difficult” F1 title fight run-in

The Mercedes driver lost the lead of the world championship to rival Verstappen last time out in Turkey after recovering from an engine penalty to finish fifth. 

Seven-time world champion Hamilton is six points adrift of the Red Bull driver heading into this weekend’s United States Grand Prix. 

Mercedes is expected to perform strongly at the Circuit of the Americas after winning five of the last six races in Austin, but Hamilton is not approaching the race any differently to the other remaining rounds. 

“It’s important to win every race, somehow or at least maximising our points,” Hamilton said. “That’s our goal over these next six races [but] it’s going to be incredibly difficult.

“There will be moments where we perhaps can edge them out and then there may be places… I don’t like to assume that Mexico isn’t going to be strong but they’re usually very strong in Mexico. 

“But a lot can happen in these six races so we will take it one race at a time and give it everything we got.” 

Hamilton insisted his relationship with Verstappen has not been affected by the intense nature of their title fight, which has featured two on-track collisions so far. 

"Not really a huge amount to say - there’s limited communication,” Hamilton replied when asked if his relationship with Verstappen has changed at all following their collisions. 

“Maybe some of the drivers hang more than others do. I wouldn’t say I was particularly hanging closely with anybody here. 

“Like last year, we would see each other at the track and we’d say ‘hi’. We would do the same thing this time this year. It’s no different for me personally.”