LH44: Keeping The Title Focus

"I'm enjoying that challenge and taking it just one race at a time. The next one is going to be super hard to keep trying to beat these guys again but not impossible as we've shown in Sochi."

Lewis's victory in Russia was his first since the Hungarian GP in August after Ferrari earned three wins in a row. Lewis was quick to praise the work of all the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport Team staff, who contributed to the success.

"It is just an incredible job from all of the guys, not giving up, trying new things, pushing forwards, always trying to be innovative and just never giving up," continued Lewis. "That makes me incredibly inspired and it's just incredible to have this result considering how quick Ferrari were off the start. Just keeping up with them was an incredibly hard task. But we haven't given up, we keep on pushing and the car was really fantastic.

"Suzuka is going to be awesome. It's one of the most exciting parts of the year and now so more than ever before because you've got three solid, incredibly fast teams, particularly pushing each other and having the ability, the potential to win a race.”

The Silver Arrows completed a dream 1-2 in Sochi with Valtteri Bottas finishing second. The Finn held off a late charge from Leclerc to extend his own position in the championship. "Starting fourth and finishing second is not bad," he said. "For sure, it's not a win, but as a team, for us it is a big win. It's been a tough few so it's good to get back to these kind of results. We really need to raise our game in qualifying now but race pace is OK and I had fun."

The lights go out on the Japanese Grand Prix on October 13.