Hamilton: Winning 2021 crown would rank as my most significant title win

Lewis Hamilton says beating Max Verstappen to this year’s Formula 1 world championship would rank as his most significant title victory.

Hamilton is aiming to overturn a eight-point deficit to Verstappen over the final two races that could see him seal a record-breaking eighth world title.

The Mercedes driver has won the last four drivers’ championships but had each title wrapped up by the penultimate round, marking 2021 as the first time Hamilton has gone into the final two races since 2016 in a battle for the championship.

Having triumphed over world champions Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg in previous title fights, Hamilton believes defeating Verstappen would go down as his best championship win yet.

Asked if winning the 2021 title would be the most significant and meaningful of his career, Hamilton said, as quoted by The Race: “It would be yeah. It would be something that no one’s ever done before.

“It’s been against the toughest battle that the sport has seen in a long, long time. And the most challenging.

“So, I think collectively it would be. Plus, we’re in a pandemic, there are all sorts of things that we’ve been faced with.”

Despite falling 19 points behind Verstappen after the Red Bull driver won back-to-back races in the US and Mexico, Hamilton’s consecutive victories in Brazil and Qatar has seen him close the gap to eight points in the driver’s standings.

The seven-time world champion’s recent performances have earned him high praise from Mercedes, who believe he has reached another level behind the wheel, but Hamilton isn’t convinced he’s performing better than ever.

“I don’t know if I agree with it to be honest,” Hamilton said. “I don’t believe that I’ve gone to a different level. I think I’m generally at a good level.

“Maybe I tapped into something different in Brazil that’s not been there before, but I definitely have [other times] in my career because I’ve come back from those positions many times before.

“But I like to think that I’ve been delivering well. But you constantly learn. You’re learning more about everything, whether that’s just certain things on the car and how you work with the team.

“It’s not just for me, it’s been the engineers it’s been the mechanics, it’s absolutely every individual in the team has pulled out more. And this is what’s needed.

“We need always need more, we need more performance, we need more focus, we need more power and strength and to work collectively.”