Lewis Hamilton isn't thinking about his championship or the possibility of breaking a British Grand Prix record ahead of Sunday's race.

The home favourite will start second at Silverstone with teammate Valtteri Bottas looking to reduce the gap between them to 24 points at least in the Drivers' standings.

However, rather than considering himself the hunted, Hamilton explained how he keeps putting targets ahead of him to chase.

“I work closely with Valtteri so I see him as the man that he is. Obviously, we are still fighting for the title and I don’t necessarily feel like he is the only one chasing,” Hamilton told Crash.net. “I am still chasing, putting an imaginary individual ahead.

“For me, I try to put previous year’s performances up there. Last year I was ahead, for example, and my target is to improve on that. On days like this, I am behind so he is now the guy that I am chasing.”

As for Bottas, he also recognises the importance of converting opportunities such as that which awaits on Sunday.

“For sure the championship fight is still on,” he said. “I’m the one chasing, I’m behind. I don’t know the exact number but it’s around 30 points, but it’s going to be up to me, to my performance.

“I need to get every opportunity there is, otherwise Lewis is going to be far away and I won’t be able to reach him anymore.

“Tomorrow is going to be important, but so is the race after and the race after that. I just need to use these opportunities and make sure I do everything I can to cut the margin.”

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Not only that, Hamilton could become the first six-time winner of the British GP, extracting himself from a current three-way tie with Jim Clark and Alain Prost.

“I'm not really one for records," he said earlier this week. "If it happens this weekend, it does, if it doesn't, it's no biggy for me - I'm hoping to be here for a little bit longer!

"Just the fact that that's even a possibility is quite unreal for me," he admitted. "I think just ultimately, it's really important to put that stuff out of your head, out of your mind and focus on the job at hand."