> Hamilton denies title is slipping away

Lewis Hamilton remains confident he can win the world championship even though team-mate Fernando Alonso further eroded his points lead in the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard beat Hamilton to third place behind the dominant Ferraris at Spa, trimming the Briton’s dwindling lead in the drivers’ standings to just two points.

If he maintains that form until the end of the season, Alonso will deny Hamilton the title in his rookie season and claim his third consecutive crown.

But while he was disappointed with the result, Lewis insisted his title hopes are still very much alive and promised to redouble his efforts at the three remaining races.

“We still got points, which is the most important thing,” he told ITV Sport’s Louise Goodman.

“It’s down to two points now, but it’s not over, so we’ve just got to keep going.

“It’s getting close but I’m going to be very, very aggressive in the next couple of races.”

Hamilton was outpaced by Alonso through most of the weekend and could not stay in touch with him in the race – despite pushing very hard and running off the track at Pouhon in the dying laps.

Asked whether he was less comfortable with his car’s handling than in previous races, he said: “Absolutely, yeah. I’m not really sure what [the problem] is.

“The car didn’t feel too bad but I just wasn’t able to gain time or improve my lap time throughout the race.

“We need to figure out what that is and if we can improve.”

He admitted it was galling to watch Alonso slowly but surely pull away from him and be unable to respond.

“It’s [frustrating] when you’re in the car and you know you’re better than what you’re doing and you can’t go any faster,” he said.

“And if you push you lose time, so all you can do is sit back and watch the opposition pull away from you.”

Ferrari’s dominant showing came just a week after McLaren swept all before it at Monza.

But Hamilton says he is not worried by the prospect of the Italian team showing similar superiority in the remaining races – insisting his focus is on beating Alonso.

“I’m not really too bothered about Ferrari – I think they’re a bit out of the picture, to be honest,” he said.

“Okay, they won today and they did a good job, but for me [the target] is to beat Fernando.”

Hamilton believes he may have an advantage at the next round at Fuji, a circuit which hasn’t been on the calendar since the late 1970s, due to his speed in adapting to new tracks.

“At the next race no one knows the circuit. I’m very much a fast learner so I think we should be very good over there,” he said.

“And then the last two I’ve heard are good tracks [Shanghai and Interlagos] and ones I should adapt to quite well, so I’m looking forward to them.”

Asked to sum up his Spa weekend, he replied: “Okay. Could be better. We need to improve.”

Source: itv-f1