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Seven-times world champion Hamilton, 36, has closed the gap to
his 24-year-old rival to eight points in their clash of the
generations after resounding back-to-back wins in Brazil and
Qatar.
The championship has swung between the two and is now on a
knife-edge.
Victory for Hamilton under the floodlights in the penultimate
race of the season on Jeddah's super-fast 6.1km street circuit
could catapult the Briton into the lead while a failure to
finish is likely to end his hopes.
On paper the flat-out blasts along the Red Sea waterfront should
favour Hamilton, whose Mercedes will once again have the "spicy"
engine that powered the Briton from last on Saturday to first on
Sunday in Brazil.
"Both titles are wide open, and our mission is clear," said
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, whose team are five points ahead
of Red Bull in the constructors' standings and can wrap up that
battle if they score 40 points more than their rivals.
"The car has been performing well recently and is probably in
the best place it has been all season, with the drivers
confident to push it to the limit."
Verstappen has won nine races to Hamilton's seven but has a
tougher fight on his hands following Mercedes' recent
performance improvement.
He needs to finish at least second to have a chance of wrapping
up the title with a race to spare.
If Hamilton finishes fifth or higher, the championship remains
open even if Verstappen scores maximum points for victory and
fastest lap.
The Briton will, however, draw level on points with Verstappen
if he wins and takes fastest lap even with the Dutchman second.
"I’m feeling calm, I know that I will always try to do the best
that I can and we’ll just find out where we are going to end
up," said Verstappen who made his Formula One debut in 2015 aged
17.
"Nothing has been decided yet and we are all up for the
challenge, there’s still a lot of racing left to do and we are
going to give it our all that’s for sure."
Lower down the order, Ferrari could wrap up third place in the
constructors' standings ahead of McLaren.
The Italians are 39.5 points clear of their Woking-based rivals
with a maximum 44 points up for grabs after the race in Jeddah.
Formula One will also remember Frank Williams, former team
principal and co-founder of the Williams outfit, who died on
Sunday.
The team, the sport's third most successful in terms of wins,
was sold to new owners last year but continues to race under the
Williams name.
(Reporting by Abhishek Takle; editing by Ed Osmond)
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