NO HIGH FIVES FOR HAMILTON
LEWIS HAMILTON wants to win a fourth Formula One world championship in a blaze of glory on Sunday.
The 32-year-old Mercedes ace is in the form of his life, winning five of the last six races to build a 66-point advantage over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with three races left.
Fifth place at the Mexico GP would be enough to see him become the first Brit to win four titles – even if Vettel wins.
But he isn’t even considering the conservative route, saying: “I plan to win. I’m not here for anything else but No.1.
“It is true that I only need to finish fifth.
“But I thought to myself, ‘How would I feel if I was to finish fifth and win the world championship?’. It wouldn’t feel great.”
To be fair, Hamilton felt pretty good the last time that happened, albeit in vastly different circumstances.
He won his first drivers’ title with McLaren in 2008 by the skin of his teeth after overtaking Toyota’s Timo Glock on the final corner of the last lap to finish fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Even if Hamilton fails to score on Sunday, he will still lead the standings ® all the way to Sao Paulo in two weeks’ time and the final race in Abu Dhabi at the end of November. Mexico is his second chance to wrap up the title after Vettel finished second behind him in the US Grand Prix to stave off the seemingly inevitable. Hamilton (inset) added: “I want to be on the top of the podium. You want to be up there. As a racing driver, you constantly want to show your performance and your strength and you never want that to waiver. “It’s going to be difficult I think and a lot closer between Red Bull and Ferrari and us. But I love that. “And to be up there with the greats, now potentially one step ahead of the greats in the UK... it’s beyond my dreams and beyond my family’s wildest dreams.” Double world champion Fernando Alonso will compete in January’s Daytona 24-hour race as preparation for a tilt at Le Mans. Alonso, 36, is set to quit F1 when his McLaren contract ends in 2018 and wants to win the French 24-hour race and the Indy 500 to complete motorracing’s holy trinity before he retires.