Hamilton on brink of signing Mercedes deal

Lewis Hamilton expects to finally sign a new contract with Mercedes "in the near future". The Silver Arrows struggles through the early races of the season had put contract talks on the backburner, but Hamilton has suggested things could move on in the wake of his dominant win in Barcelona.

Hamilton took a comfortable victory from pole at the Spanish Grand Prix, extending his lead over Sebastian Vettel in the drivers' standing to 17 points.

Despite winning the previous race in Azerbaijan, Hamilton had been in far from celebratory mood as Vettel and Ferrari had held the upper hand throughout the weekend until poor fortune opened the door for Mercedes, initially for Valtteri Bottas until his puncture gave Hamilton the win.

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Dieter Zetsche, the head of Mercedes-Benz was present at the Circuit de Catalunya, and Hamilton suggested that business was in hand, as the Silver Arrows look to tie up the future of their four-time world champion, who is not contracted beyond the end of the year.

Hamilton told DPA in Barcelona: "We are not far from finalising things. It will hopefully happen in the near future.

"All the bosses are here and there is not a single person in the upper hierarchy of the team who has doubts, as far as I can tell."

Team boss Toto Wolff stopped short of setting a deadline for Hamilton to sign when he faced the media across the weekend in Barcelona, but continued to express Mercedes' confidence that he would remain with the squad.

"We don't want to lose him and l don't think he wants to go anywhere else," said Wolff.

"Everything is going fine. We have had other priorities in the last few weeks.

"We weren't happy with the performance of the cars and we needed to sort things out. Finalising a contract takes time and we both decided to park it."