Hamilton is ready to increase his lead in the drivers' title race after stunning the motor racing world with his results in the opening seven races.
MAGNY-COURS: British rookie Lewis Hamilton is ready to increase his lead in the drivers' title race this weekend after stunning the motor racing world with his results in the opening seven races of this year's Formula One season.
Hamilton, who leads his McLaren Mercedes-Benz team-mate defending double drivers' world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain by 10 points following his back-to-back wins in Canada and the United States, goes into the French Grand Prix brimming with confidence.
He knows that another win, to seal a rare hat-trick in his maiden season, will not only confirm his status as favourite to lift the crown, but also set him up perfectly for his home British Grand Prix just a week later.
The 22-year-old driver, who has astonished seasoned observers with his level-headed self-control, personal attention to detail and sheer mental strength this year, could double his lead by the end of the month and leave Alonso psychologically struggling to handle his dilemma.
Buoyed by unparalleled popularity as the first driver of Afro-Caribbean descent to race in Formula One and revelling in being the current darling of the British sports media, Hamilton has shown he has all the requisite talent and dedication to succeed.
Alonso, 25, who admitted he could not keep pace with his youthful partner in qualifying for the last race, at Indianapolis, has continued to make optimistic and defiant remarks - after telling the Spanish media that he "had never felt comfortable in the team" at McLaren.
"It is a long season, there is a lot of racing left," he said last week.
"Anything can happen and I am satisfied. I can make up this position, but I have to push hard to do it."
On the eve of this weekend's 70-laps contest around the tight, smooth and technical Magny-Cours track set in rural central France, it was interesting to note many comparisons made recently with a similar duel in the late 1980's between Frenchman Alain Prost and Brazilian Ayrton Senna, when both raced for McLaren.
Prost said this week that he understood why people compared the two situations and said he felt sympathy for Alonso.
"He came to a new team, at McLaren, where he had wanted to be for a long time, and he hoped to feel at home like in his own family.
"But that did not happen for him. Instead of being the only son, if you like he found he had a brother already there that he did not really know about! And he is worried that he is the favourite."
According to Prost, winner of four drivers' titles in a superb career, 80 per cent of the battle to be fought out by the two McLaren drivers now is psychological, rather than technical. And, in that respect, he said he felt Hamilton had the advantage.
"He is new, and he is young, and Alonso is the older guy who has been winning a lot. So everyone supports the new and young guy. It is always like that."
Only Ferrari have much hope of preventing the championship becoming a private McLaren affair and they need desperately to win this weekend to stem the tide.
In the drivers' standings, Hamilton has 58 points, Alonso 48 and Brazilian Felipe Massa, Ferrari's leading hope, 39. In the constructors' championship, McLaren have 106 and Ferrari 71.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}