Lewis Hamilton says all of his wins in Formula 1 have been a "different journey" even after claiming a record-breaking 92nd at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
The Briton now stands alone at the top with the most victories in F1 history and is poised to equal Michael Schumacher with seven world championships, perhaps as soon as this weekend at Imola.
However, reflecting on the scale of his achievement, Hamilton admits it still remains pretty surreal.
“It’s going to take some time to fully sink in,” the Mercedes driver said post-race at Portimao. “I could only ever have dreamed to have been where I am today.
“We’ve got my dad here which is amazing, and my step-mum Linda, and [my dog] Roscoe, so it’s a very blessed day.”
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Later, Hamilton also revealed how, despite the amount of success he has had, the feelings and emotions rarely change.
“Each race – and each race win particularly – there have been certain characteristics, a different journey, each time,” he told Sky Sports.
“The crazy thing about this is that I would have thought I would get used to things.
“But I was getting ready, getting my helmet on in the garage today [and there were] nerves, uncertainty. Have I remembered my strategy? Have I remembered my switch settings?
“All these different things you go through and it’s still terrifying!
“You wake up on a Sunday and every Sunday you feel different. It’s hard to register – am I good today?
“There are days I’m getting in the car on the grid and I’m like ‘I don’t feel good, this is not going to go well’ then I drive the best ever.
“Then I have days that I feel really good and it’s not so good. So you never know what to expect but all I try to do is by preparing myself the best way I can.”
While, at the time, many expected the milestones Schumacher set would never be equalled, this time there is a driver who many see as simply waiting in the wings to go and potentially challenge what Hamilton achieves, Max Verstappen.
And commenting on Lewis' accomplishments, the Dutchman admits he's setting the bar at a ridiculously high level.
“We were just talking about it… Lewis said that he keeps pushing because he wants to set it very high so I have to try and work hard to get there,” Verstappen said.
“It’s amazing, what can you say? It’s an incredible achievement - 92 victories. I don’t think it stops there.
“I think it will go well over 100. He’s pushing me to go until I am 40 years old or something. It’s a good motivation as well. It’s incredible. It looks like he’s going for his seventh world title so it’s just very impressive.
“Everybody knows he’s very quick but I think what has been also been a very strong point is that he’s very consistent and he rarely makes a mistake, that’s why he got to these numbers so quickly. It’s very impressive.”
