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F1 German Grand Prix: Hamilton: Championship lead changes nothing

Lewis Hamilton says his approach to the season won't be altered by taking the F1 championship lead from Nico Rosberg in Hungary and feels he is actually still playing catch-up to his title rival.

The reigning F1 world champion claimed the lead in the drivers' standings for the first time in 2016 with victory at the Hungaroring, completing the impressive feat of reeling in Rosberg's 43 points lead with five wins in six race.

Despite taking the lead Hamilton says his mental approach will remain unchanged from when he was trailing as he still feels he is behind in terms of power unit component useage.

The British driver is steeling himself for grid penalties later in the season after his early campaign mechanical failures have forced him to use a higher allocation which is likely to see him exceeding the permitted five per unit in a season.

"It doesn't feel any different. I want to win this weekend just as much as I wanted to win last weekend," Hamilton said. "If anything I want to win more than I did last weekend because last weekend was a pretty shit weekend in general, in terms of performance and I want to improve on that.

"I feel like I'm still chasing. I've got less engines, so I know that I've still got a steep hill ahead of me and whilst I'm ahead I'm not really ahead, because I'm going to start last somewhere, at least in one race where I will have to start last, so I'm actually still behind but very close."

Comparing his and Rosberg's level of performance, Hamilton feels he has been driving at the same standard all year but results are coming to him as he hasn't been constrained by technical faults.

"I think Nico has been driving just as well as he has all year, it's just I haven't had any problems in the car in the last six races," he said. "Apart from one weekend [Baku] where Saturday wasn't good for me and the race we had the problem with the car.

"Otherwise I've been driving exactly the same as I had in the previous part of the year, just not had a gearbox failure or engine problems, which has been nice."

Zdroj: crash.net