Following a disappointing Canadian Grand Prix, four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton still believes that he can win his fifth championship this season.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton just lost the 14-point lead (110 to 96) in the Formula 1 driver standings that he entered the seventh race of the 21-race 2018 Formula 1 season, the Canadian Grand Prix, with.
Hamilton lost this lead that he had in the driver standings thanks to the fact that Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who entered that race around the 14-turn, 2.710-mile (4.361-kilometer) Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in second place in the standings, won that race and scored 25 points, while Hamilton finished in fifth and scored 10 points.
Vettel, a four-time Formula 1 champion, now leads fellow four-time Formula 1 champion Hamilton in the driver standings by one point (121 to 120). He had not led the standings since after the third race of the season, which was the Chinese Grand Prix, when he led by nine points over Hamilton (54 to 45)
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Hamilton had led the driver standings ever since and had built up a lead as big as 17 points (95 to 78), which is how much he led over Vettel by heading into the sixth race of the season, which was the Monaco Grand Prix.
However, with that lead gone now and Hamilton now facing a deficit in the driver standings like he faced for the majority of last season, a season that still resulted in him winning his fourth career Formula 1 championship, questions about whether or not he can win his fifth career title this season have arisen, especially since the only race that he and Mercedes as a whole have dominated has been the Spanish Grand Prix.
Aside of the Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes have simply been outclassed by Ferrari and/or Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, even in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which was the race that resulted in the first of Hamilton’s two victories through seven races so far this season and the first of Mercedes’ two victories so far in 2018 as well.
Here is what Hamilton had to say about the matter when asked about whether he felt concerned about the pace of Mercedes and if the team would not be strong enough to allow him to win his fifth career Formula 1 championship, according to ESPN.
"“I don’t let that get into my mind, no. That will be the first sign of weakness and my mind is not weak. I am still here to win. I still believe that we can win. I’ve got the complete confidence in my guys and I am putting that energy towards them.“The moment anybody in any sport, and I would imagine also in business but if you imagine like in Tennis or Golf or whatever, if you look across the net and you think damn it I might lose this, you’ve already lost. It doesn’t matter where I start on the grid, I don’t look at any driver and say ‘oh I might lose to that person’. I am like how can I beat them? How can I be better? I am going to keep doing that until I die.’“You’ve got the Red Bulls that every now and then are in the mix. Ferraris have so far been, I would say the most consistent but there’s a lot of races to come. These engines have to go a long way. There’s going to be things happening that we just don’t even know, what, when.“That’s why I am just taking this one. I am really grateful for this day, while it’s ultimately not a great performance from us and we would want more points. We’d look back in ten races time and say that we actually had a fifth, it wasn’t an eighth, it wasn’t a DNF, I think I will be grateful for it.”"
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Do you believe that Lewis Hamilton will win his fifth career Formula 1 championship this season, or will four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel beat him to it by winning his first title since he drove for Red Bull Racing in the 2013 season when he won his fourth consecutive title?