HAMILTON ON A HIGH

Briton is reinvigorated by updated engine but taking nothing for granted

CHAMPIONSHIP leader Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes Petronas team will be hoping for more of the same at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

After dominating last Sunday’s French Grand Prix to claim his 65th career victory, the four-time champion arrives in the Styrian Alps with a 14-point lead in this year’s title chase and a sense of reinvigoration thanks to his updated engine.

Hamilton and his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start as favourites for Sunday’s race, albeit reluctantly.

After a disappointing performance on one of Hamilton’s favourite circuits, at Montreal in Canada, their French triumph came on a day when chief rival and fellow-four-time champion Sebastian Vettel experienced another of his periodic days to forget.

His opening lap collision with Bottas ruined both of their races and ensured Hamilton had a straightforward afternoon as he regained the championship lead.

Both Hamilton and Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff stressed after last Sunday’s win that they can take nothing for granted in this yoyo season, the Englishman saying he intended to stay grounded and to approach each race the same.

Wolff strove to play down any newly-perceived advantage in speed, thanks to the upgraded Mercedes engine.

“Do we have the best engine now?” he said. “Very difficult to say because when you look at the data, the quickest car on the straight was Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), but we believe he was maybe running a different aero configuration.

He added that both Hamilton and Vettel have enjoyed 17 points leads already this season and forecast that their fortunes would continue to swing on a race by race basis.

“What you saw in Montreal in comparison to Le Castellet is that marginal gains matter,” he added.

“We fell back in Montreal because we couldn’t bring the new power unit and we were racing power unit number one for the seventh consecutive race. The others introduced their upgrades... That certainly didn’t help.”

While Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull ponder their prospects of big points hauls in Austria, it is a very different story for one-time great teams McLaren and Williams.

The two British outfits are now besieged by crisis stories.

Last weekend, just a week after his triumph for Toyota at the Le Mans 24-Hours race, two-time champion Fernando Alonso endured his worst outing with McLaren, who are in desperate need of an Alonso revival.

“This was by far the worst performance of the year so I really hope that this is a one-off,” he said.