NEXT RACE - 7th September

Hamilton: It's business as usual

Saturday 26th July 2008

Lewis Hamilton says it's business as usual as he concentrates on the upcoming Hungarian GP rather than the bigger picture, the World title.

The McLaren driver became the sole leader at the top of the standings at the previous race in Germany, which he won in the wet. It was his second successive victory and brushed aside suggestions that he was cracking under the pressure.

And in order to ensure the pressure remains a minimum, Hamilton says he's taking it race by race hopefully on his way to the title.

"It's easy to say that you'll treat each race with a certain amount of respect. But the reality is that I haven't changed my style: it seems to work for me and I enjoy pushing hard to achieve a good result," Hamilton said.

"That's when I feel I am operating at my maximum and its potentially dangerous to start thinking about changing your approach at this point in the season.

"I'll be honest: my approach has served me fairly well so far and I'd need to give it some serious thought before attempting to change it. Let's just say it will be business as usual in Hungary."

The 23-year-old, though, stopped short of predicting another McLaren win next weekend, saying that although the MP4-23 is "fantastic" one can never guess what lies ahead.

"I'm wary about making any strong predictions; yes, we were strong in the last two races, but we encountered difficulties in the two before that, so it's impossible to call it this weekend," he said.

"All I can say is that our car feels fantastic at the moment and I'm really enjoying driving it: it feels like you can keep fine-tuning it to extract more performance from it, which is a fantastic feeling for any racing driver."

As for the Hungaroring, the venue for the race, Hamilton said: "Hungary is very different from Germany; Hockenheim is a track that allows you to slipstream and pass other drivers fairly easily, the Hungaroring is the opposite of that.

"Qualifying will be crucial, and strategy will also be important in determining the optimum fuel-weight for the opening stint.

"It will be hot and tiring too, so keeping your focus and concentration will be vital. I don't go into this weekend surfing any particular wave of confidence: it's such a different type of circuit that it's difficult for anybody to feel certain about their chances."

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