With his title rival's hopes taking another hit at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton says he does not plan to change anything on his seemingly inexorable march to a fourth Formula One crown.

"I am not really particularly taking any crazy risks in order to be in the position I am in," the 32-year-old Briton said after driving his Mercedes to an imperious win at Suzuka, his eighth of a season in which he has faced a renewed challenge from the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

"To be honest, there's not really any need for me to change the approach. The points are still what you go out there to achieve. But also you try to look after your car. I just don't think there is any need to make any changes."

And his point is hard to argue.

Since the season opener in Melbourne in late March, Hamilton has finished all 16 races in 2017, starting on the front row of the grid on 10 Saturdays and stepping onto the podium on 11 Sundays.

Vettel, on the other hand, has seen a campaign in which he has won four times go well and truly off the rails when he crashed out in Singapore and failed to challenge in Japan after a spark-plug problem caused him to retire after just four laps.

And now, if Hamilton can outscore Vettel at the next race by 16 points, the driver's title is his.

Hamilton pointed to his team's consistency on and off the track as the reason why he is in such an enviable position.

"All I can really say is that I have to put (the success) down to my team. They've done a phenomenal job, reliability has really been on point. They are just so meticulous and that's really why we have the reliability we have and the results we have been having," he told the crowd, after giving himself a champagne shower.

As the season winds down to its final four races, the next in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 22, Hamilton says one of the keys is to look after his car so he does not incur the grid penalties that have blighted so much of the field this year.

"I think we will just try to continue to do what we are doing, of course, we want to look after the car and the engine, but we are already doing that throughout the races. There is not much more I can do."

Hamilton's on-track awareness and intelligence was never more on show than on his slow-down lap in Suzuka -- after just winning the race he had the presence of mind to report to his engineer that his vehicle had been making some unusual noise.

But when asked whether he has any concerns for the U.S. Grand Prix, Hamilton was quick to say it was likely much ado about nothing.

"I don't honestly think there is anything wrong with the engine, I just felt a couple of things," he said.

"We make lots of different switch changes, the turbos make strange noises and different vibrations come in, so I'm hoping there is nothing. I don't think there's anything."

So with his car still in tip-top condition and his pace perhaps as supreme as it has ever been, Hamilton will continue to push past the pitfalls.

"Sometimes when you come off the gas a little bit, you actually cause yourself more trouble than you need," he said.