Red Bull needs to be faster - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says Red Bull needs to be faster to help his championship challenge at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The defending champion needs to overturn a 12-point deficit against Nico Rosberg in order to win the title, which requires his team-mate not to finish on the podium if Hamilton wins the race. Having topped the opening two practice sessions on Friday, Hamilton says he was not paying attention to Red Bull during the day but feels both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo need to be more competitive.

"Honestly I have no idea where they are as we’ve been just focusing on ourselves so I don’t know how close or how far away they are," Hamilton said. "I think we are comfortable where we are. They need to be faster that is all I know."

On his performance on Friday, Hamilton says he is pleased to be putting pressure on Rosberg, having lost out to his team-mate at the same circuit a year ago.

"It is a good feeling and I have obviously come here to try to do that to be quickest and I know that I am quicker. It is about going out and actually doing it. I managed it in those sessions and it feels good. It doesn’t really matter if he is second, I guess he is more relaxed while I am fighting and chasing. I have no idea what is going to happen on Sunday but for tomorrow the sole focus is to get it on pole.

All I’ve got to do is solely focus on getting that pole position and right now I don’t need to think about the race. After that it will then be thinking about the start and the other things but really positioning is what I want for this weekend. I have had some great races recently and last year I wasn’t pushing as hard as it didn’t matter hence why Nico won those past few races but I will pushing this weekend and hope to get the win."

Hamilton added he is motivated to perform for his former McLaren colleague Aki Hintsa, with the former doctor having passed away last week.

"I also want to do my best for Aki, I hope that he is watching and I can make him proud."

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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.