Lewis Hamilton says any negative or downbeat comments he may have made over the last two Formula One race weekends are purely a result of his determination to win.

A loose headrest deprived Hamilton of near-certain victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix two weeks ago and last weekend in Austria an unscheduled gearbox change ahead of qualifying put him on the back foot with a five-place grid penalty. He has dropped eight points to championship leader Sebastian Vettel over the past two races -- bringing his total deficit to 20 -- but Hamilton said he is happy with his personal performances this year.

"Generally when there is adversity, it's an opportunity to grow and do something pretty special," he said. "I'm really generally happy with the way I've been driving. I think it's important for people who are watching and people who are reporting to understand that.

"You have to have patience with us drivers, and I can't speak for everyone else, but you can't be happy every day you have a result, whether it's second, fifth, 10th, whatever it is, you're going to be pissed at one point because you put so much into it.

"You train, you sacrifice everything to make sure you get the best result possible, so when you don't personally deliver and other things are stacked up against you, it's hard to come out smiling and be all 'it's fine', because that means you don't care enough. And the fact is I care more than anything.

"So there are days where it feels more painful than others. There are days where it's easier to handle and move forward. So just when you make comments or write your stories or when people make comments, just bear that in mind. It's not a sign of being ungrateful or anything like that. It's an intense battle which I'm loving and I think we are enjoying as a team, but I want to win this championship."

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Hamilton says the situation in the championship could be worse after the problems he has faced at the last two weekends.

"Twenty points behind is 20 points behind," he said. "It's not great, but it could be 30, it could be 40. It could be 30-something today.

"Of course it's a hit when you get the penalty, we started eighth rather than third -- and it does make a difference -- but it's not the end of the world. I got the best points I could."

Turbo and MGU-H issues on Vettel's car earlier in the season are likely to result in a grid penalty later in the year and Hamilton is hopeful the mechanical issues will balance themselves out among the championship leaders over the year.

"Right now I'm 20 points behind. I don't have a crystal ball, but it doesn't look great at the moment, and how am I going to turn that?

"There's still got a long, long way to go. It could easily switch within one race. But the bigger that gap gets, the more pressure builds. You go into the next race and something bad happens or you have a DNF which is inevitable for many of us.

"I'm sure Sebastian eventually will have something, I'm sure Kimi will eventually, I'm sure something may happen on my side also."