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F1 Brazilian GP: Hamilton: ‘Third time lucky’ to keep title dreams alive

Lewis Hamilton says there is no particular reason why he has never won the Brazilian Grand Prix as he heads to Interlagos knowing he must prevent Nico Rosberg from taking a victory in order to keep his title hopes alive.

With Hamilton dominating in Austin and Mexico City to make in-roads into Rosberg's margin, the German's comfortable pair of second place finishes behind his Mercedes team-mate means he takes a 19 point lead into the final two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

As such, a win for Rosberg in Interlagos will be enough for him to clinch the title with a round in hand regardless of where Hamilton finishes. The stakes for the Briton are raised further by the fact he has never won the Brazilian Grand Prix in nine attempts, one of just two events on the calendar he is yet to succeed at, the other being the new Baku round.

Though Hamilton is uncertain as to why Brazil is amongst his 51 career wins, he insists a lack of past success doesn't concern him despite the potential consequences of falling short again.

"I'm not focused on the championship right now. I'm just focused on trying to win these race and performing at my best. Normally when I perform at my best things like this happen. So that's all I've got to do. I've never won in Brazil so I go in with the same mentality as I had this weekend.

"There no reason [why I haven't won in Brazil]. At McLaren I had probably one year where I could have won it and I got taken out by I think Hulkenberg.

"Last year with Nico [Rosberg] he was exceptionally quicker, last year and the year before. I think last year I was very close, I only qualified second by 0.07 or something like that which I lost in the gear shift up the hill. So yeah, who knows? Third time lucky maybe."

Hamilton has a relatively poor record of form at Interlagos, with only three podiums from nine attempts in 2009, 2014 and 2015 and two DNFs.

Zdroj: crash.net