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Hamilton: I've been training my whole life for this moment

Lewis Hamilton has vowed to keep up the pressure on Max Verstappen, drawing upon his considerable experience to try to claim an eighth World Championship.

Lewis Hamilton has said that he's not stressing about the final two races of this year's World Championship and is aiming to draw upon his considerable experience to try to beat Max Verstappen to the 2021 title. Verstappen has a slender eight-point lead heading into the final two races, but Hamilton has had the recent momentum by taking victory in Brazil and Qatar. As he chases a record-breaking eighth World Championship, Hamilton said that the belief is there at Mercedes that they can still claim the titles. "Everyone truly believes that we can do what we're trying to do, which is great," Hamilton told Sky Sports. " I think for me, personally, just where I am in my life, I am the most relaxed that I've been! "In the sense that I'm not worrying, I'm excited to get in the car, I'm excited for the duel and the battle that's ahead - the challenge. That's going to be so tough, but I've been training my whole life for this moment, so I'm going to enjoy it. "With regards to the result at the end, I won't look back and say, 'I wish I did something different', because there's been a lot of learning, a lot of growth, and I've given everything - for me, that's enough."

Expecting a Red Bull fightback

While Hamilton had a clear edge on speed in Brazil and Qatar, he's refusing to believe that Red Bull are foundering at the end of this title fight. "I don't think it's ever good to assume that your opponent is on the ropes," he said. "Time and time again, they come back strong in every race, so you have to assume that they're going to be coming back strong this weekend, and we have to give it [our] all and so that's what we've done." With Saudi Arabia seeming to suit Mercedes in terms of power demand and straight-line speed, Hamilton said it's not as simple as that and there are plenty of factors that will influence how this race weekend plays out. "We have no idea really truly how it's going to go," he went on to comment. "We don't know what the grip level is. We don't know whether there's graining, whether there's overheating on the tyres, they're trying to guesstimate what those will be, what wing level, all these different things. "We've prepared the best we can possibly prepare with these unknowns. I truly believe we are the best team, so we've got to still do the job."

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