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Hamilton: Now is the time to be the best I've ever been

Lewis Hamilton says now is the time to produce his best-ever form against team-mate Nico Rosberg in order to retain the drivers' championship.

Rosberg holds a 26-point advantage with three races remaining this season, which means he can theoretically win the championship on Sunday in Mexico if he wins the race and Hamilton fails to score. With Red Bull team principal Christian Horner describing the final three races as three FA Cup finals for Hamilton, the triple world champion says he will do all he can to perform better than ever.

"I mean, there are lots of different ways you can look at it, but obviously I have to win all the races," Hamilton said. "But I knew that at the last race.

"People can interpret it anyway they want but I know I have to win and I am just going to try to do the best, to do everything I can in terms of getting in my car and qualifying and driving, and time on the track, and really trying to apply everything I have learned over these years.

"If there is any time for me to be the best I’ve ever been it is these last three races."

However, Hamilton says he will not take more risks in order to keep the title race alive, feeling he already takes enough as it is.

"I approach it the same as I’ve approached generally every race. Maybe slightly more relaxed than I have others maybe because I have accepted that there are things that are out of my powers, out of my control, and all I can do is control what is in the car and what I do. So as long as I focus and put all my energy towards that, hopefully I can get results like I did last weekend. But if I don’t, then you move forwards.

"I don’t think I will be taking more risks than I usually do. I think I am a relatively risky driver, but I don’t think I will be taking more than others. I will definitely be cautious of my surroundings, as I always am. But I am going for it, that is for sure. While my heart is still beating and I still have that drive to win, and there still is an opportunity even if it is only one percent I am going to be going for it."

Having got the better of Rosberg in the past two seasons, when asked if he has seen any change in his team-mate's character this year, Hamilton replied: "Nope. But I’ve had a lot of failures. That’s the only difference.

"I think if both our cars had been fully reliable all year long we would have had pretty much the same battle we’ve had all last year and the year before, so I don’t see it being any different."

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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.