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Lewis Hamilton wants to be the hunted in world championship fight

"It's much easier leading the championship, full stop" says Lewis

Lewis Hamilton has admitted he is not enjoying being the hunter in this year's world championship fight.

Primarily because of the unreliability of his Mercedes car this year, Hamilton finds himself trailing team-mate Nico Rosberg by 43 points in the standings. But the reigning champion has scoffed at the idea that, in the position of chaser, the pressure is off him - or that it's harder being the driver everyone else is striving to catch.

"It's much easier leading the championship, full stop," the Mercedes driver responded. "You have the advantage and so you have that comfort buffer. I have zero comfort buffer right now. It's just hard work right now. I'm not focusing on the 'what ifs', I'm just focusing on the here and now."

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Ted Kravitz and Johnny Herbert analyse how Lewis Hamilton's nose got broken in the Mercedes garage during Thursday practice at Monaco

Hamilton has previously described his points-deficit to Rosberg as being akin to a 'mountain' with the German almost two full race victories ahead. 

So has Hamilton already come to terms with the possibility of failing to complete a hat-trick of championships at Mercedes?

"If it happens, it happens, if it doesn't, it doesn't. There will be many, many opportunities in the future but this opportunity is still there - we have 16 races to go - and I'm remaining positive. The glass is only 10 per cent full and there is still all the rest to fill up."

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But Rosberg has his own special motivation this weekend. Victory would make him only the fourth driver in F1 history to have won at Monaco three or more times in a row. And the current roll-call is an illustrious list: Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and 'Mr Monaco', Graham Hill. 

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Hamilton finished the 2015 Monaco GP in third after Mercedes pitted the race leader under Safety Car, leaving him behind Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel

Hamilton, conversely, has won just once around the iconic venue - a modest statistic which prompted him to describe the race as his "Achilles heel" earlier this month. And while Hamilton remains a committed fan of the art of conquering the circuit and its unforgiving barriers, describing a lap of Monte Carlo as "one of the purest thrills you can have in a racing car", the 31-year-old has admitted that he is not a fan of the spectacle the race sometimes provides. 

Can Hamilton end his Monaco hoodoo?

"In the last few years it has been a one-stop race and that is a procession," he mused. "The track looks so cool at night and l was thinking 'why don't we have two races here?'. We should have more stops and the ultrasoft tyre isn't soft. We need an ultra, ultra, ultra, ultrasoft - four times softer - so we have more stops and that mixes it up. In my first years, when there were more stops and that was way more exciting. 

"We will be two seconds faster this year than last year but the overtaking will still be the same."

The weather may have something to say about that, however, with showers still forecast for race day. And in any case, would Hamilton mind a lack of overtaking if he crosses the line in first?

As he addressed his pre-event media briefing, Hamilton remarked that a friend had declined to attend this year's event because he considered the race to be a 'train'. 

Hamilton paused for a moment and then added:

"I said, 'Yeah, I'm in it - and hopefully at the front'". 

Watch the Monaco GP live on Sky Sports F1. The race starts at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up underway at 11.30am. Or watch the race without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV. 

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