Lewis Hamilton revved up despite engine fears ahead of French Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has played down fears his title defence could be derailed after the four-times world champion admitted his engine upgrade might be delayed yet again.

Mercedes had hoped to bring the more powerful unit to the last grand prix, in Canada, only for reliability problems to cause that plan to be scrapped at the last minute.

And as a result, Hamilton struggled with an engine that already had seven races in it, venting his frustration at the lack of pace over the race radio. He finished a lowly fifth and conceded the championship lead to Sebastian Vettel.

Ahead of Friday's practice session, the Briton warned the prospect of getting the new and improved unit in time for Sunday’s race still hung in the balance.

But Hamilton insisted he would not spend another weekend woefully off the pace as Formula One returns to the Paul Ricard circuit near Marseille for the first time in 28 years with, at worst, his Mercedes set to be powered by a fresh version of the older spec engine.

“At the moment, I don’t know,” he said of his team’s plans for race weekend. “I think I might have one of my new engines out of my three [allowed per season under the new-for-2018 regulations], which is good enough.

“The engine that we’ve used for the first seven races has been a great engine. A fresher, newer version of that is going to be great and have more power than the one I raced in the last race, obviously, and so I am not concerned.

“The next couple of days we might have a better understanding of where we stand with that. I trust in whatever decision the guys make. It will be for the right reasons.

“We’ve done the seven races with great performance up until now so, even if we are to take the older spec, I’m not worried about it.”

Hamilton goes into the race second in the drivers’ standings, a point behind Vettel.