Hamilton: There is more juice to come

The championship leader squares up with Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel for a nine-race ace shoot-out for the title - a fifth for one of the two contenders.

Hamilton, who will attempt to win at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps for a fourth time in his career, was asked by reporters in Belgium if the pressure was getting to the title contenders.

To which the reigning he replied, "Only Sebastian can tell you if he is feeling the pressure. I can only tell you the pressure is on me. That pressure is as great as it can be, but I wouldn't want it any other way."

"I welcome it. Under pressure, humans are moved to do extraordinary things, to evolve, to push the envelope, to be better in all areas. That is the excitement of this battle."

Although Hamilton's points advantage is handy, one DNF or mishap by the Mercedes driver and it will be all square very quickly.

On the other hand, Hamilton has been near perfect in the last two races and has a tendency to return from the summer hols fired up and stronger than before while Vettel, with arguably the best car, has tripped up and cost himself crucial points.

But Hamilton is intent on ramping up the pressure, "I don't sit here thinking I have got a race advantage in the sense I can relax. I don't want to lose the points that I have. I don't want the pendulum to swing the other way again."

"How do I stop that? That is the question in the back of my mind," explained the Briton who beat Vettel on his way to victory last year at the venue in the Ardennes.

At the same time, Hamilton is understandably wary of his rivals, "We are battling against Ferrari, a historic team which hasn't won a championship in a while. And although we have won in recent years, we want to win as much as they do, if not more."

"Going into the break we did an incredible job as a team. We may not have been best at all elements, but we did a solid job to come away with the points we did."

"We know the areas that we have got to improve on, but we also know that there are things in the pipeline which take time to see results."

"There is more juice to come. When you do have a little bit of a buffer, subconsciously there is a positive effect, but my approach is the same," added Hamilton.