Nico Rosberg has been forced to dismiss suggestions that his 43-point championship lead has been established off the back of four easy victories.
Rosberg sauntered to his seventh consecutive win - a streak which stretches back to last season - with a lights-to-flag triumph in Sunday's Russian Grand Prix.
Only Alberto Ascari, Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher have won as many races on the trot in Formula One history. Rosberg has also joined Schumacher, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna as only the fourth driver to have won the opening four grands prix of a season.
While Rosberg produced another error-free performance on Sunday, his afternoon was made easier when Lewis Hamilton, who finished second, endured further misfortune with an engine problem, and Sebastian Vettel crashed out on the first lap.
But when it was put to Rosberg that he had been gifted another straightforward victory, the German replied: "Winning F1 races is not like an open goal. Of course it's not something that I could have expected, to start the season with four wins, but now that's the way it is and I'm very happy about it.
"I'm aware it's not going to continue like that forever. Sport is always about up and downs and the down will come at some point. I just need to mentally prepare for that to then come straight back up when it does happen."
Rosberg has never beaten Hamilton in their three previous seasons together at Mercedes, and remains wary of the threat still posed by the world champion.
Looking ahead to the next race in Spain, Rosberg added: "I am well aware that Lewis is going to bounce back when he has his clean weekend and it's going to be the usual tough battle against him.
"Nothing's changed there. He's as motivated and as quick as ever. It will be a great battle again in Barcelona."
Hamilton started 10th, and got to within eight seconds of Rosberg before a water leak curtailed his charge. But Toto Wolff, the Mercedes boss, later revealed Hamilton was not the only driver within the sport's all-conquering team to encounter trouble in Sochi.
"We had a problem on Nico's car which gave us some grey hair during the race," Wolff said. "It looked at a certain stage that he wouldn't finish the race.
"We are pushing the limits on the chassis and engine side a lot in order to have a competitive car and this is why we are winning races but also if you push to the limits at a certain stage you will step over them."
Source: PA
