LEWIS Hamilton has stated his simple strategy to hang on to his Formula One championship lead - attack.
The McLaren driver has declared that he is focused on fending off his closest rival, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, in the final four races of the Formula One calendar- in Singapore, Japan, China and Brazil, reported The Guardian.
The Briton finished seventh in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, just over a second behind Massa, having started 15th on the grid because of a tyre-choice error during last Saturday's rain-soaked qualifying session.
Last year, he had a 17-point lead in the world championship with two races to go, but Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won in China and Brazil to take the title by one point.
This year, with four races to go, Hamilton's lead has been narrowed to one point over Massa, and he knows he must keep his nerve.
"Kimi is the world champion,so it is his championship to lose," he said on Monday, although the Finn is almost out of the running, after a third successive race in which he failed to score a point left him trailing Hamilton by 21.
"Singapore is going to be a great experience. I've never been to the city before, and I love the fact we're going back to a street circuit. Fantastic.
"For Japan, you know what I'm like there. I drove quickly in both the dry and wet. Shanghai, same again. I was very quick there last year and I know the car I have will be fantastic there this year.
"And then Brazil, we'll be quick there again. But I would say none of them will be particularly key.
In each race we're going tobe attacking."
Former champion Niki Lauda, who lost the 1976 title race by a single point to James Hunt, can empathise with Hamilton?s situation.
He said on Monday: ?It really is quite extraordinary how tight the championship battle is at this late stage of the season, and I couldn?t choose between Massa and Hamilton at this point.
That year, I had a big points lead and James really built up his momentum over the last few races, so the pressure was just as intense as what these guys are going to experience.
"It will probably come down to who keeps the coolest and holds his nerve over the final few races. It's going to go all the way down to the wire in Brazil, in my opinion."
While preparing for the Singapore race on Sept 28, Hamilton will give evidence to the International Automobile Federation court of appeal in Paris next Monday.
There, he will have to relive the episode in the Belgian Grand Prix when he entered the braking zone for the chicane before the pi t s running wheel-to-wheel with Raikkonen,straight-lined the corner to avoid a collision, permitted the
Ferrari driver to repass and then took the lead going into the La Source hairpin.
The stewards judged that Hamilton gained an unfair advantage and dropped him from first to third.
The Briton wants his win restored,together with the four points he lost. That alone could decide the world championship.
