Hamilton bids to keep his F1 title challenge alive

Austin - Lewis Hamilton's behaviour on and off the circuit will go under a sharp media microscope

Lewis Hamilton's behaviour on and off the circuit will go under a sharp media microscope as he bids to keep his title challenge alive at this weekend's United States Grand Prix.
Back at the scene of his crushing title-winning triumph in 2015, when he scored a belligerent victory to end Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg's challenge, the 31-year-old Briton this time faces a very different scenario.
It will begin on Thursday when, two weeks after his controversial Snapchat antics in Japan, he returns to appear before the international media at a mandatory pre-event news conference.
At Suzuka, he played on his camera and complained that the media session was "killing me" and the furore that followed resulted in him walking out of a team news briefing two days later.
That led to more media uproar that many believed undermined his concentration and led to his poor race start that saw him fall from second on the grid to eighth.
He can ill afford any similar slip this time as he goes into the first of the final four races of a roller-coaster season with a 33-point deficit behind Rosberg.
The defending three-time world champion may be seeking his 50th career win at one of his favourite circuits, but he knows that Rosberg wants revenge after being forced off track last year.
Rosberg, also 31, has the luxury, however, of knowing that he does not have to win again this season to clinch his first world title. Four second-place finishes behind Hamilton will be enough.
As to his media commitments, Hamilton has been confirmed, by his Mercedes bosses, as a participant in each and every one at the Circuit of the Americas despite suggesting, in Japan, that he might not answer any more questions from reporters.
All this - and the news this week that he is to be a character in the next edition of the video game 'Call of Duty' - suggests that Hamilton is relishing his back-to-the-wall last-ditch bid for glory in a land where he feels at home and is widely popular.