LEWIS HAMILTON opened up a six-point lead in the F1 championship and declared: I want more.
The defending world champion won the Hungarian GP last Sunday to move into P1 in the title race for the first time this season and leapfrogs rival team-mate Nico Rosberg.
It marks an astonishing turnaround from when he was a whopping 43 points behind when they both crashed out in Barcelona.
Hamilton, who has won an impressive FIVE of the last six races says he now wants to follow up his win in Budapest with a victory in Rosberg’s home race in Germany this weekend.
He said: “I’m still in the mentality of chasing. It’s been great to be able to come back with less engines and the struggle that we had at the beginning of the year.
“I’m very proud of that but conscious there’s a long way to go so it is important we go from strength to strength.
“Hungary was not a strong weekend for me. Silverstone was. It was better during the race in Budapest but I need to make sure I stay on it.
“I don’t really want to go back to being over 25 points behind. I want to go into the summer break with what lead I have now, at least.”
However, Rosberg, who signed a new two-year deal with Mercedes worth £36m last week, has not given up hope of his maiden F1 title, despite Hamilton’s resurgence.
He added: “I’m not counting points. I fully expected him to come back and I didn’t expect to be 43 points in front all the time.
“It ebbs and flows and it’s always going to be a tough battle against him because he’s the world champion.
“I’m disappointed because I wanted to win Hungary, not because some points are this way or that way and soon I will be very excited again because it’s the home race.
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“It’s still close and it just takes a small thing to switch it the other way and I want to do that at Hockenheim.”
And Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also says he fully expects the title race to go down to the wire this season.
He said: “We’ve been with each other for four years now and it’s important that each one of them concentrates on their strengths.
“You will see a couple of races go towards one and then towards the other.
“We had the same discussion when Nico was doing really well at the end of the season and maintained that momentum into this year.
“Everyone was saying this the new Nico but then it turned around. You can see it swings both directions.
“We’ll see that swing through the season and my feeling is that the championship will go to the end.”
Meanwhile, Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez has blasted Hamilton after the Brit appeared to give him the middle finger.
Hamilton claims the gesture was made “accidentally” but the Mexican, who was penalised for holding up the Mercedes driver, is angry at the lack of respect shown to him.
He said: “It was not a very respectful move from him I have to say. I have spoken to him in the past, I think he is respectful he is the world champion, but he shouldn’t do these kinds of things.
“He should respect all of the competitors. You never know, maybe in the future I will be fighting a championship with him so he has to respect that.”
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