LONDON  - Championship leader Lewis Hamilton has warned that there is no time to relax despite his victory at last weekend's Canadian Formula One Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver now has a two-point lead in the title race over nearest rival Fernando Alonso of Ferrari in what has been the sport's most closely-contested opening to a season.
Hamilton's success in Montreal made him the seventh winning driver in as many races and despite the Englishman leading the championship, only 33 points separate the top six drivers.
Because of this, the 2008 champion insisted he must consolidate his lead by producing another strong result in Valencia at next weekend's European Grand Prix. "While it's always pleasing to be leading the championship, I'm only two points ahead of Fernando - which is nothing, particularly when there are a handful of really strong drivers all separated by a couple of points, so there's still everything to play for," said Hamilton.
"Secondly, the intensity of this year's championship means there's so little breathing space - we may have won in Canada, but there's an enormous amount of pressure to keep racking up good results at every Grand Prix. "I think that consistency, rather than individual strong results, will be the key to winning this world championship, so we need to back it up in Valencia with another strong result."
The 28-year-old added that a strong result in Valencia would boost his confidence and help him build momentum ahead of his home race at Silverstone in July. "People are always asking me to predict what will happen at the next race and I always tell them it's really difficult to make an accurate prediction - but I'll be heading to Valencia feeling super-motivated to get another strong result and maintain my momentum before we head into Silverstone and the Santander British Grand Prix."
In stark contrast, his McLaren team-mate and English compatriot Jenson Button has really struggled in recent races, plagued by mechanical issues poor qualifying performances.
In turn, the 2009 champion will be hoping to reignite his title challenge with a strong result in Valencia.  "We addressed everything back at MTC once we'd returned from Canada in a bid to get a clearer direction for Valencia next weekend," said Button, "a day like that is enormously productive and I think we covered a lot of ground.
"The last few races haven't delivered the results I'd like, but there are still 13 races to go.
"We've had seven different winners and no clear championship leader has emerged, so I'll be looking to get a decent result under my belt next weekend in order to get my title bid back on track."
Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean believes he has every chance of extending Formula One's magnificent seven different victors this year to eight by claiming his maiden triumph for Lotus in next weekend's European Grand Prix. The Frenchman, who has proved himself to be a driver of high potential this year and who finished a strong second in last Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, reckons he and his team are ready to grab their first win in Valencia.
Weighing up Lotus's potential to register a victory at the Spanish street circuit
in the harbour of the Mediterranean city, Grosjean said: "I don't think we are far away from winning.
"The gap to the win for us is not that big. We need to qualify better. That is not our strength this season, but we are working on it. I think Friday and Saturday were quite difficult for us in Canada, but we have been learning a lot about the car so it's good that we now have that in our pocket for the next races.
"We have to go into every weekend aiming for a win -- approaching a race in any other way is like putting yourself on the back foot from the start.
"I'm mainly hoping for an improvement in qualifying, a good start and then we'll see what happens from there.
"It's great to be fighting at the front and that's always what we want to do, but we're in a tight battle this season so of course the most important thing is to score some good points again for the team.
"If we have a strong weekend from the start, then I think we are capable of fighting for a podium or even a win. We'll see after qualifying where we are and hopefully we can get another good result."
Grosjean has been a revelation this year as he set about restoring a reputation that suffered in his previous brief spell in F1.
His application, intelligence and speed have been a perfect foil to the great raw racing ability of Lotus team-mate and former champion Kimi Raikkonen, who won the world title in 2007 with Ferrari.
Raikkonen also believes Lotus, formerly Renault, can shine and grab more success even if he was left frustrated by a technical problem with his car in Montreal.
"I was a bit frustrated overall as I think we could have achieved more from that weekend," he said.
"Still, we gained more points for the championship which is the most important thing, especially with everything so close this season.
"I love winning and that's what I'm always trying for. I've never won in Valencia -- so of me, it's a good target. Last time I raced in Valencia I finished third after starting from sixth on the grid which was not too bad.
"I would like to improve on that this time around and, who knows, if all goes well we could be enjoying a very good result."