Hamilton was asked whether he’d changed his approach this year and was less concerned about preserving his car in races:

I think I was a relaxed last year. I mean every year you get more comfortable within yourself and within the methods you use and the process you go through. But look our qualifying’s not been spectacular this year. It still is not perfect. And so there’s the work to be done there.

But the races have generally been relatively strong bar that one not such great result in the last one with a mistake. In terms of looking after the car, I still look after the car. Just what I find on the weekends, we have these engines, if you look at practice one I did three laps less than Valtteri. You looks at practice two. I think I did maybe a lap more. So I’m always conscious of it.

My trust in the car is incredibly high and I know what the car’s able to do and so I guess the experience of last year it just made it me a little bit more confident to push a little bit more. And being that it is so close I need to kind of try and eke a little bit more out of the car. And if it’s not strong enough then we need to make it stronger. But the guys work with their margins and I’ve been operating within the margin and ultimately you want to get it to a point where it’s close, but safe, as possible. And I think that’s where I’m operating right now.