Far too early to talk about F1 title, says Hamilton

Budapest, July 30: Lewis Hamilton believes it is still far too early to be thinking he has one hand on the Formula One drivers' championship despite a healthy lead in the standings.

At Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, where Ferrari typically thrive, it was Mercedes man Hamilton who secured a second win in a row and extend his advantage over rival Sebastian Vettel to 24 points ahead of the mid-season break.

Hamilton tends to emerge well from the pause in proceedings, kicking on to win five of the last nine races to clinch the title last year, but he is eager to guard against complacency.

Asked if he was now well on the way to defending his crown, the the 33-year-old replied: "Absolutely not. No, I think it's far too early and you've seen the ups and downs we've had from this year.

"You've been ahead by some points and behind by some points, but we have learned a lot.

"I don't believe there's ever a moment that you've got your hands on the title or the trophy. We've got a long, long way still to go and there's still nine or 10 races.

Today be like... @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/0K8E6XJjG6

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) July 29, 2018

"A lot can happen moving forwards but what's really important is that we continue to keep up the pressure and keep working as we have done until now.

"There's nothing we really need to alter. I think our work ethic has been very strong and the team morale is better than ever, and the spirit is better than ever.

"We've just got to keep it up because, as I've said, we came here, we came to the last race, [Ferrari] kind of blew us away a little bit in qualifying – they would have done here had it been dry. We welcome the wet races, that's for sure.

"I'm not really certain what to expect. We've got Singapore coming up; Singapore's another weak circuit for us, so there are a few good ones and a few not so good ones ahead.

"It's important to capitalise on those difficult weekends such as this and I think that's really been a key strength of ours this year.

"We generally have come away with really good points at circuits which have generally been our weaker races. Then we really need to capitalise on the races that we're really strong at, like Silverstone, for example, which we did."