Lewis Hamilton says he will try to beat teammate Nico Rosberg by as big a margin as possible in Abu Dhabi, even though it may prove futile in his pursuit of a fourth world championship.
Rosberg leads Hamilton by 12 points ahead of the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, meaning Hamilton has to hope his teammate finishes off the podium to stand a chance of winning the title. The British driver has won the last three races with convincing margins over his teammate, but Rosberg has only had to finish second each time in the knowledge that he is still on course for the title.
Faced with a title showdown that is not in his hands, Hamilton said all he can do in Abu Dhabi is try to beat Rosberg by the biggest margin possible.
"Obviously I have to continue what I'm doing," he said. "Nico's finished every single race this year apart, obviously, from Barcelona which we both didn't finish so he's had fantastic reliability, so I think right now, as the way it's going it's going to be very hard to beat him.
"That doesn't mean I can't win the race, so I'm going to take the energy I have now and the speed that I have -- which has been great these past few races -- and really try to push as hard as I can in that race to get as far ahead. It's all I can do."
Although Rosberg only has to finish third in Abu Dhabi, he said he will try to emulate his victory at Yas Marina last year.
"Well, it's going to be a great, exciting race weekend, a great battle for sure. I would like to win the race and I'm going to try and do that for sure. I've had good experience there in the past but of course that's not going to help this year.
"You know we all start from zero this year, every time we go to a different track. Yeah, feeling good so let's see."