I’m not backing down in my fight for the championship and gaining those positions back fair and square showed that. I really enjoyed our first trip to Russian Federation a year ago and it was an awesome weekend for the team – one that I will always remember after seeing all the hard work they’ve put in during my time here. As a result, we have gone a step softer with the tyre nomination this year to help us get back into the two to three pit stop window, which is what we desire for every race.
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Having suffered his first retirement of the season at Singapore during a hard weekend for Mercedes, Hamilton hit back strongly at the Japanese GP as he came from second on the grid to beat team-mate Nico Rosberg to victory.
“The championship is not over because my worry is this next race at Sochi has Singapore-type asphalt”, said the F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman.
“Hopefully now fans have seen what a great facility they have there and how attractive Sochi is, we’ll see plenty more people in the stands this year too”.
However, Mercedes could be in for a repeat of last season when they took the constructors’ world championship for the first time in their history in Sochi. But we are under no illusions that it will come easy.
“Suzuka was a very pleasing weekend after the disappointment of Singapore”. It resulted in a one-stop race, even for Nico Rosberg who pitted at the end of lap one after severely flatspotting his opening set of tires before running for 52 laps on the mediums. “The track has quite a wide variety of different corners, so it makes for a good all-round test for the tyres, with the drivers able to benefit from the extra speed of the supersoft this year”.
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Niki Lauda has admitted he is anxious about this weekend’s Russian grand prix.
