Lewis Hamilton plays down party-boy image – he’s hell bent on proving critics wrong

LEWIS HAMILTON has rubbished claims he is burnt-out by insisting he is as "strong as ever" following his win in Monaco.

The defending world champion won his first race for SEVEN MONTHS to breeze back into the title race.

While his rival teammate Nico Rosberg spent time after the Spanish GP testing in Mercedes' F1 car, Hamilton was living it up in the south of France.

But Hamilton, who has been hanging out with footballer Neymar and pop star Justin Bieber, has denied he has run out of gas and is ready to prove it in the Canadian Grand Prix.

He said: "I've proven that I'm just as strong as I've ever been and I will be for the rest of the year, so I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

"Montreal has always been a good track for me, so hopefully I'm able to shine like I did the first time I went there in that great city atmosphere.

"It felt great to be back on the top step in Monaco after a tough run and, hopefully, it was a big confidence boost for the team too.

"There's a long way to go yet, though. We've seen from these opening six races that anything's possible and these swings inevitably go both ways.

"We are the greatest team - but we have more pressure from our rivals than ever before, so it's important we keep pulling together and refining any weak areas."

Meanwhile, Rosberg, who won four races in a row at the start of the year, has now scored just six points in the last two GPs.

The German says he did not expected to go the whole season on the top step of the podium and is now hoping that his bad luck is just a blip.

He added: "I expected and prepared myself for some difficult races after the awesome start to the season. This is where experience helps me.

"In the last Grand Prix I hopefully got all of my bad luck out of the way in one race, so onwards and upwards again from now."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also knows the team have a fight on their hands if they are to retain the constructor's title.

Red Bull have made a huge improvement while Ferrari continue to threaten to take more points as the season progresses.

"This unpredictable season has been great for the sport and shows that Formula One is alive and well but there is clearly work to do.

"There remains room for improvement in our reliability, but the push for more performance has become increasingly important, so we need to push harder than ever."