Hamilton never expected quick title turnaround

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Lewis Hamilton says he never expected to be back in title contention so soon having been 43 points adrift after five races.

The collision between the two Mercedes drivers at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix meant neither scored and left Nico Rosberg with a 43-point advantage over his team-mate heading to Monaco. Hamilton picked up his first win of the season in Monte Carlo and made it back-to-back victories in Canada to slash the gap to just nine points and Hamilton admits he was expecting a longer fight to reduce the deficit.

"After the first five races, I could never have predicted I'd be back at the sharp end of the title fight so soon," Hamilton said. "But we're starting to have cleaner weekends as a team and are showing real strength as a unit - coming through with results even when things aren't perfect.

"That's a big confidence boost for everyone. Winning is our lives - it's what we work all day for and go to bed dreaming of. Of course, there's still a very long way to go and work to be done.

"From my side, there's never been a doubt in my mind in terms of what I can do with this car and I've shown once again that I'm just as focused as ever. I can't wait to get to Baku, experience another new country and see what we can do out on track."

Following Hamilton's victory in Canada - leading home Sebastian Vettel - he and the Ferrari driver are level in terms of points scored in their careers, with each driver currently on 1974 points.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.