Points advantage won't tempt Hamilton to change approach

Lewis Hamilton will manage his racing this weekend according to his usual approach, the Mercedes driver insisting he's not factoring in his current points advantage over Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton has edged his arch-rival three wins to one in the last four races to build himself a 30-point lead in the championship battle, with both drivers fighting this year for their fifth F1 title.

The Brit insisted however that the gap to Vettel isn't on his mind ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix, the scene of a Scuderia meltdown in 2017.

"Honestly it is not, it might be subconsciously but I have not thought about it," said Hamilton.

"At the moment there is no reason to change the way I approach races as there are a lot of points still available so the approach is still exactly the same as it has been all year long.

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"It seems to be working so we’ll just keep that up as long as we can basically, but we do expect to have some difficult races up ahead.

"Obviously Ferrari have been ahead of us for the past few races so we’ve got to keep up with them if not pass them but it will be tough."

On paper, Ferrari heads into the weekend as the outright favourite, its SF71-H package outpacing its Mercedes counterpart in terms of performance, but the German squad outracing its opponent thanks to better race management and fewer mistakes.

"I honestly never have expectations every time I come to races," Hamilton explained.

"I guess ultimately our expectation is to give it our all and try to perform as well, if not better, than we have in the past races.

"I think collectively as a team we have done a tremendous job over the past few races so we want to try to keep that quality of performance."

In addition to Ferrari, Hamilton is also expecting a tough challenge from Red Bull thanks to the expected efficiency of its RB14 around the streets of Marina Bay.

"They are driving what they have but I think this weekend as it is a downforce circuit they are always good on their rear tyres as well, so this should undoubtedly be a strong weekend for them as it was last year," Hamilton added.

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