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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 31 MAY 2017 25 Sport FORMULA 1 Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to meet over car problems LEWIS Hamilton will sit down with his Mercedes team in the coming days as he attempts to get on top of the car problems which are threatening to derail his challenge for a fourth title The Briton is now 25 points behind runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel follow- ing the Ferrari driver's third victory from the opening six rounds of the season in Mo- naco. Hamilton, who hosted a star- studded party in the princi- pality on Sunday evening, was remarkably upbeat after his disappointing performance at the most famous race on the Formula One calendar. But the triple world champion admitted he can ill-afford another off- colour weekend if he is to halt Vettel's charge. Hamilton's season has been blighted by an on-going strug- gle to get this year's new Pirelli tyres in the optimum operat- ing window, and thus extract- ing the maximum performance from his Mercedes car. Indeed his victory in Spain earlier this month has been sandwiched by a distant fourth- place finish in Russia and now seventh in Monte Carlo, too. Oddly, it is not an issue which is effecting his team-mate Valtteri Bottas. "We have definitely got to im- prove our understanding of the car and see if we can do a better job," said Hamilton, who is due at Mercedes' Northampton- shire factory on Thursday. "We are all under no illusion that we are not perfect and that we still have got areas to improve on. "There are so many different things we need to look into, to try and understand why one car can make the tyres work and the other cannot. "Trust me, I will be pushing, and the guys will be pushing to fully understand it because we don't want to be in this position again. One more race like this and we will be much further behind." Vettel's victory in Monaco was significantly aided by Fer- rari's strategy which enabled the championship leader to get ahead of his team-mate and pole-sitter Kimi Raikkonen during their only round of pit stops. Hamilton subsequently sug- gested that Ferrari's tactics provided the most obvious evi- dence yet that Vettel is being given preferential treatment by the Italian constructor this sea- son. But the Briton insists he has no intentions on seeking the number one status at Mercedes for the remaining 14 races of the season. "I haven't spoken to the team and don't plan to," Ham- ilton added. "Valtteri has been doing a great job and don't feel like we have to favour one over the other. "I still believe we can win this thing. Twenty-five points is a long way away and it is hard just to get to six points and be with- in firing range, but bit by bit we will try and chip away at it." Hamilton will head to Mon- treal for the next stop on the grand prix calendar a week on Sunday. It is a track which has proved kind to the Briton in the past, winning his first race there back in 2007, and an event which he has gone on to win a further four times. But Ferrari's resurgence this season, and Hamilton's car troubles, makes a sixth victory far from a fore- gone conclusion. "I like the notion of underdog because the underdog is the one that people want to see win," Hamilton's Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said. "We are the underdog. We need to catch up. And this is the new reality at the moment." FinaSpa OVER 200 TREATMENTS fortina spa - tigné seafront, sliema slm 3012, malta tel: +(356) 2346 2149 / +(356) 2346 2347 www.fortinasparesort.com e-mail: spa@fortinasparesort.com SCAN FOR ONLINE BOOKINGS Facials Hands & Feet Body & Beauty Massages Pregnancy Treatments Body Therapies Baths & water Treatments Spa Santé - Spa Facilities Kids Spa & much much more...