Monday, June 30, 2008

Hamilton aims to get title back on track - NEWS

Re-published from F1-Live.com





Photo F1-Live.com

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Putting the focus on the driving
Lewis Hamilton on Saturday sounded confident about getting his World Championship campaign back on track in the near future.

The Melbourne and Monaco winner, and former drivers' standings leader, has now fallen ten points behind in the battle for the 2008 crown following consecutive disastrous outings at Montreal and Magny-Cours.

Hamilton, 23, also seemed to lose his composure with the press corps in France a week ago, moving pundits and experts to advise him to shut out the distractions and focus on simply driving his McLaren.

"You've got to learn to take a step back and realise 'OK, you don't have to do anything, just drive the way you normally drive and you will be fine, you will get by'," Hamilton said on Saturday, after meeting with patients at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

He insists that the past weeks, including the spate of penalties, have not affected him.

"It's just part of the learning curve," the Briton said. "You have your ups and downs and if you don't expect to have them then that's not reality."

"I haven't met my toughest time in my life as yet but all of this is preparing me for it,"
he added.



Hamilton said he expects the media to be "back on my side" once he gets back up to speed, beginning with next weekend's sell-out British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

But he continued to defend his actions following last Sunday's race in France, when he initially refused to speak to reporters after crossing the line just tenth.

"You've just done an hour and a half race and worked your backside off, and then they expect you to sit down and straightaway get out of the car and talk to people," Hamilton told BBC Radio 5 Live, before heading off to another off-track commitment -- a yacht race involving team sponsor Hugo Boss.

"Are you crazy? Damn man, I'm knackered. I need a drink. Sometimes I like to do that," Hamilton added.

© CAPSIS International
Source: GMM

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