Hamilton avoiding "revving the nuts" off engine to avoid Mercedes penalty

Lewis Hamilton insists he has "absolutely no idea" whether he will need to take an engine penalty across the remaining seven races this year but is doing all he can to avoid one.

The Mercedes driver leads the race for this year's F1 title by two points over rival Max Verstappen, who rescued second at Sochi after taking his own penalty to add a new PU into his pool.

With upcoming tracks forecasted to suit Red Bull more than Mercedes, the Dutch driver now has the advantage of being able to push his allocation of engines more than Hamilton.

Hamilton had previously said the plan was to get to the end of the season without triggering a penalty but pressed after the Russian Grand Prix on whether he could still do so, the championship leader said: "I have absolutely no idea.

"Of course, I have lost one engine, Valtteri [Bottas] has had several and there have been others that Mercedes have seen up and down the paddock.

"Right now, I am trying to treat my engines, the ones we put in, with absolute care when I am driving in terms of how much I am gassing it, how much... just revving the thing, revving the nuts off it, trying to minimise the laps that I do."

Hamilton "can't control the future"

Hamilton overcame a tricky weekend to emerge victorious in Russia after suffering two minor crashes in qualifying before losing places at the race start.

With engine concerns looming and mistakes starting to creep into his performances, the British driver is intent on focusing only on the present.

"I can't control the future," he added. "All I can do is try to maximise, whenever I have the opportunity.

"Obviously now, there have been two, the sprint race [in the Italian GP], with the [slow] start and then qualifying [in Russia]."

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