Lewis Hamilton adopted a cheerful, but realistic stance on Thursday after arriving in Texas ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix. 

It is a race he badly needs to win to boost his hopes of landing an unprecedented eighth world title, a prospect he conceded as being very difficult to achieve. The Mercedes driver, who is seeking a record-increasing sixth win at the Circuit of the Americas to overhaul Dutch rival Max Verstappen’s six-point lead with six races to go, said he was taking the title run-in one race at a time. “It’s important to win every race somehow, you know, maximising our points—that’s our goal over these next six races—and it’s going to be incredibly difficult,” he said.