Lights Out: Hamilton's hardest ever year

Lewis Hamilton is currently positioned perfectly to claim his fifth Formula One world championship, but he thinks this perfection will need to be replicated in nearly every F1 weekend if he is to emerge victorious in what he describes as the "hardest" season of his career.

The 2017 driver's champion blew away the competition at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, and finished a huge 20 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

The dominance of the performance at the Circuit de Catalunya allowed Hamilton to claim his second win of the campaign and extend the gap between him and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari to 17 points, with the Monaco Grand Prix next on the schedule.

It has been a positive week for Mercedes as not only did they win in Spain, but Hamilton is reportedly close to putting pen to paper on a new deal to extend his stay with the Silver Arrows.

Despite this, Toto Wolff admitted to be being "bloody worried" at the prospect of his Mercedes car taking to the streets of Monte Carlo due to their poor performance in 2017.

Mercedes had some troubles in the early part of the season which has meant they are not as far ahead in the rankings as they would like, either in the drivers' or constructors' standings. Even at this relatively early stage, Hamilton has labelled the campaign as the "hardest" he has faced in his career to date.

The passion to win is so great within the Brit, that he wants to win each race in "perfect" fashion.

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F1 on this day ????
Ayrton Senna crashes out of the '88 Monaco GP, surrendering a 50-second lead. He was reportedly later found sobbing in his hotel room at the missed opportunity.#AyrtonSenna #Senna #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/ypdNu3o0zj — GP Fans Global (@GPFansGlobal) May 15, 2018