Rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton can stretch his championship lead and add to the discomfort of McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso in Sunday’s US Grand Prix.
The 22-year-old Briton is on a high after celebrating the first victory of a debut season in Formula One that is already exhausting the stock of superlatives with just six races completed.
“Going into Indy, obviously I go there with great confidence,’’ said Hamilton after winning in Canada last weekend.
“We have to try and continue with the performance that we have and I have no doubt we can do that.”
Hamilton has never raced at Indianapolis before but Alonso knows the same applied to Montreal, where the youngster led from pole position. The double world champion is eight points behind and, judging from comments to Spanish reporters this week, not enjoying the experience.
Indianapolis has done Alonso no favours in the past and is the only circuit on the current calendar where he has yet to stand on the podium.
Last year’s fifth place was the first time the Spaniard had finished at The Brickyard but McLar-en are dominant at present and Hamilton, with six podiums from his first six races, expects his team-mate to be fired up.
“At the end of the day, he’s the two-time world champion and he’ll bounce back without a doubt and I’m sure he’ll be extremely quick in the next race,” said the Briton.
Indianapolis last year also heralded the start of an aggressive fightback by Ferrari and now-retired seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, who went on to wipe out a 25-point deficit before Alonso finally prevailed.
Ferrari finished 1-2 at the US circuit last year but Kimi Raikkonen is now 21 points behind Hamilton while third-placed Brazilian Felipe Massa is 15 adrift.