Hamilton hits back at Rosberg: I do what I want!

Lewis Hamilton has defended criticism of his travel schedule, insisting that he is more than capable of commuting from Los Angeles between races without any adverse affect on his performances.

Former team-mate Nico Rosberg commented that he if he were forced to undertake Hamilton's regime of travelling from LA to the British Grand Prix, he would struggle to break the top 10 in qualifying.

But Hamilton, speaking after just missing out on pole position to Valtteri Bottas, brushed off suggestions that it impacts his concentration and ability to put in good performances for Mercedes.

He said: "I do have five world titles and they didn't come on their own. My preparation comes first and I've felt fantastic all weekend.

"The pressure's quite high here being a home Grand Prix. I prepare the best I can but I do what I want, I don't do what you think I should do or anyone else thinks I should do, and that's what has led me to five world titles."

Hamilton made a slight error in Q3 which allowed Bottas to sneak in and claim pole by just six thousandths of a second.

But Hamilton is keen to look forward to the race and focus on getting a good start on Sunday.

He added: "It doesn't really matter at the end of the day, you can only look forward. Valtteri did the job, congratulations to him and for us it wasn't the best of qualifying sessions. It's a long race tomorrow, I hope that I'm able to utilise the advantage we have of starting on the mediums.

"Our setup suited the race track best. I think yesterday we really did struggle with it on the single lap. It felt great going into P3 but it actually deteriorated as we went through the session. I didn't want to move too far from the setup I had as it works well in the long run."

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