Hamilton stays cautious for Turkey

The McLaren driver put on a superb performance in Shanghai to stop Sebastian Vettel's run of victories, but he admitted he is not getting carried away, as he is aware that he still doesn't have the quickest car.

"You can come from the last race and be excited and confident going to the next race, but I don't have particularly high hopes," Hamilton said on Thursday in Istanbul. "I generally don't like to expect too much so if it doesn't work out it is a big come down from that.

"I prefer to arrive here cautious - we may not be the quickest this weekend which is definitely possible, but if we are that will be fantastic and we will do best to win.

"In the last race we didn't win because we had the fastest car, but because we outdrove and had the best strategy. Hopefully we will close the gap, hopefully our upgrade is good enough but we will see tomorrow."

The Briton also said he is expecting more teams - and not just Red Bull and McLaren - to be in the mix for victories as the season progresses.

"I don't think so," he said when asked if the victory fight was only between McLaren and Red Bull. "Especially with this break the other guys seem to be closing the gap gradually. Mercedes is closer, Ferrari is there or thereabouts.

"It doesn't seem like it will take much for them to make a quick switch and be up there with us. The Renaults are doing fantastic and Petrov driving fantastically well. I think it will be close at some point, so I hope we can continue to move forward."