Lewis Hamilton has hit out at the penalty awarded to him in Sunday's French Grand Prix – his second in as many races – and has responded to media suggestions that he is letting the glamorous side to life as a
Formula 1 driver take his eye off the ball.
The McLaren-Mercedes ace has endured a turbulent and controversy-dogged second season in the top flight following his breathtaking maiden campaign in 2007, with the weight of a nation's expectations now firmly resting upon his shoulders, having to battle against a superior adversary in
Ferrari and seeing a number of significant errors creep into his driving.
The most costly of those has undoubtedly been his pit-lane misdemeanour in Montreal, when he ran into the back of chief title rival
Kimi Raikkonen during the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago, consequently seeing him fail to score in the last two races and slip down from the head of the championship table to fourth position.
After being forced to take a ten-place grid demotion at Magny-Cours by way of punishment for that mistake, Hamilton went on to produce a scrappy showing in the race, attacking too aggressively too soon in his desperate efforts to make up ground early on and indeed nudging the back of team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen in the opening stages.
He would subsequently earn himself a second – contentious – penalty for having been deemed to have gained an advantage when he shot briefly off the road after overtaking
Sebastien Vettel in the
Scuderia Toro Rosso on the opening lap, ultimately crossing the finish line a frustrated and point-less tenth. He remains adamant, however, that he could not have done any more.
“I did everything I needed to do,” the Briton stressed. “I stayed out of trouble, drove what I thought was a fair race [and] just missed the points. That's two races without scoring points, but there are still ten races to go.
