Lewis Hamilton heads into tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix bidding to seize the championship lead for the first time this season with an unprecedented fifth win in one of his most rewarding races
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton
Budapest: Lewis Hamilton heads into tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix bidding to seize the championship lead for the first time this season with an unprecedented fifth win in one of his most rewarding races.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. Pics/AFP
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The reigning triple champion trails his Mercedes teammate and championship leader Rosberg by one point, having slashed the German's advantage — which stood at 43 points following May's Spanish Grand Prix — with four wins from the last five races.
He scored the most recent of those victories in front of his home fans at the British Grand Prix two weeks ago, which followed his win in Austria, and will score a hat-trick if he triumphs on Sunday.
"I don't know if any of you guys surf," said Hamilton on Thursday.
"I do. Sometimes you have to wait for the waves to come. Sometimes you fall when you get up on that wave, but when you catch it, it's the greatest feeling.
"That's very much how it is right now — I happen to be on top of the wave. I'm not a really good surfer, but I'm pretty good right now."
Rosberg opened the season strongly, winning the season's first four races as Hamilton ran into a spate of reliability problems.
The 31-year-old, fresh from having signed a two-year contract extension keeping him at Mercedes until the end of 2018, will be determined to hit back, especially after being demoted to third from second after being hit with a post-race penalty in Silverstone.
But it won't be easy.
Hamilton jointly holds the record for most Hungarian Grand Prix wins with Michael Schumacher, both drivers having won the race four times each. Another win on Sunday will be more than any other driver has ever managed around the 4.3-kilometer long Hungaroring.
But past form is no guarantee of victory, as Hamilton found out yesterday.
The Briton had topped the day's opening morning practice ahead of Rosberg but crashed out early on in the afternoon, ending the day fifth and logging just four laps in the second 90-minute session.
He went to the medical centre for mandatory precautionary checks but appeared fine. His car however, had to be stripped and checked for damage, ruling him out of the session.
That left Rosberg fastest at the end of the day followed by Red Bull's Daniel Riccardo and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
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