No extra help for Alonso - Hamilton

Formula One sensation Lewis Hamilton has insisted world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso is getting no extra help from McLaren to win the world drivers’ championship this season.

Hamilton was commenting in Montreal in the wake of remarks he made after the Monaco Grand Prix that he had been told by the team to ease down, allowing Alonso to win.

Those claims prompted an inquiry by Formula One’s governing body FIA into whether McLaren had used illegal team orders at Monaco as Alonso and Hamilton secured a one-two finish.

Hamilton, 22, has made a blistering start to his F1 career, claiming a record five podium finishes from his first five races, the best start by any rookie.

He said: “The team give me the exact same car as Fernando. I have got a fantastic group of guys working on my car, who are as good as Fernando’s guys if not better.

“I have got a real strong belief in them and all the guys here want to win. No-one is biased; they are very, very level and very equal.

“I feel the team are going to give me the car, me and Fernando, to win and I feel it is going to come down to the end. It will just be at the end who is the most consistent and who makes the least mistakes.”

Hamilton said he had been taken aback that his comments had provoked so much controversy and that the subsequent furore had diminished McLaren’s achievement of a one-two at Monaco.

“I didn’t really focus on it too much, but I could see it was just getting bigger and bigger,” said Hamilton.

“I was quite surprised that such a big thing was made out of it.

“At the end of the day when you look at it, we were the most successful team at the weekend and we did a fantastic job with both drivers. We finished one-two and it wasn’t recognised.

“It was blown up so much that people got distracted. When we came away from it people weren’t focusing on that, they were focusing on something else.”

Hamilton revealed his biggest disappointment had been with himself for finishing second.

“I was happy but it is just tough when the car is great, everything is going well, you know you have got the pace, and you don’t maximise it. So some of the disappointment came from myself.

“But Alonso did a fantastic job in the race and there is no doubt he did the best job and deserved to win.”

“It was nice to have the support but my time will come. I’m here to do the best job I can and apply more and more pressure to everyone and try and improve as a driver.”

Hamilton was today set to take his first drive around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in the first practice session for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

He first launched his defence against claims by former world champion Jacques Villeneuve, that his start-line manoeuvres in the first five races had warranted punishment for dangerous driving.

“Jacques deserves to have his opinions about it and I can respect that, but this is racing,” said Hamilton.

“If you are cutting across people, being dangerous and possibly taking them out, then I would totally agree.

“But that has not been the case in any of the races I have seen.

“It has not been dangerous up until now and I think you can see that it is for the FIA to make the choice.”