Lewis Hamilton in the ‘fight’ but admits Max Verstappen and Red Bull are a step ahead

F1: Can Lewis Hamilton do it again?

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Lewis Hamilton says he’s still in the “fight” for the title this season, but admitted Red Bull and Max Verstappen still have the advantage still heading into the Austrian Grand Prix, round nine of the world championship.

Red Bull have won the last four races heading into the Austrian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen pulling out an 18-point lead at the top of the table.

Red Bull meanwhile extended their lead to 40 points over the seven-time world champions, with Mercedes yet to take the top spot since round four in Spain.

Verstappen finished a mighty 35 seconds ahead of Hamilton last Sunday, and is hoping for a repeat of his performance this weekend at the same track.

“They’ve done a great job in these last four races,” admitted Hamilton, in the press conference on Thursday.

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“It’s been really difficult for us from Monaco, which obviously was a bit of a disaster,” he continued, “and then the same for Baku, better at France and better last weekend but they have taken a step ahead of us and so we are just working as hard as we can to see if there’s a way we can close that gap.

“But we’re not even halfway through the season so I am still fighting and chasing for this title.”

Mercedes have yet to be beaten in the hybrid era with seven back-to-back titles to their name since 2014, and it’s the first time the reigning champions have felt the heat from a rival team since 2018 when Sebastian Vettel took the fight to Hamilton in a Ferrari.

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Hamilton, meanwhile, is looking to beat Michael Schumacher’s record of seven titles with an eighth this season, if he can overhaul Red Bull.

“I don’t really find myself being concerned as such,” Hamilton insisted. “We are all pushing as much as we can, we would love to have more pace at the moment to be able to really challenge, not only in qualifying but in the race. They’re continuing to take steps forward but I can’t get tied up and get into that negative bubble of worrying.

“All I do right now is that I am trying to put all the energy into being the best prepared, helping the engineers be best prepared, lots of great conversations and this is the time we come together and we unite and we work as hard as we can to rectify whatever issues we have.

“That’s what we do, that’s why we’re world champions and I have confidence in the team that we can do that.”

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