Lewis Hamilton says Formula One history has taught him not to give up on the 2016 title, with the Mercedes driver well familiar with both losing and winning a championship at the last race.
Having taken the sport by storm in 2007, Hamilton came tantalisingly close to claiming the biggest prize as a rookie only to falter over the final two rounds of that particular season and losing out to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in Brazil
One year later, the then McLaren racer was again involved in a title fight that went down to the wire, beating Ferrari’s Felipe Massa to the championship with a last-lap overtake.
“It’s great to be performing as I know I can perform and not have car problems,” Hamilton said of his back-to-back wins in the United States and Mexico. “To show that pace out there, it’s a great feeling. I’ve just got to push all the way to the end.
“One way it can be painful and one way it can be a great thing, but all I know is that from the beginning of my career in Formula One right until the last minute, it changes, so that’s why I can’t give up.”
In order to extend the title fight to the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton will need to prevent Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg from winning the upcoming the Brazilian Grand Prix. Despite 51 career victories, the Briton has yet to conquer the Autodromo José Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo.
“At McLaren I had probably one year where I could have won it and I got taken out by I think Hulkenberg [in 2012],” Hamilton replied when asked on his lack of success at Interlagos. “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 [0.078] which I lost in the gear shift up the hill. So yeah, who knows? Third time lucky maybe.”
Rosberg has won the past two editions of the Brazilian GP from pole position.
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