Alonso: Hamilton unlucky in F1 this year.

Fernando Alonso has dismissed any notion that his former McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton is making more mistakes in his second season of Formula One in 2008, insisting the young Briton has simply been 'a little bit unlucky'.

Though he got his title challenge back on-track with a supreme performance in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last weekend, Hamilton's form in recent weeks had been patchy at best, with a litany of calamities that saw him clout the back of defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari under a red light in the Montreal pit-lane and subsequently receive a drive-through penalty for a controversial overtaking move on Sebastian Vettel in the Scuderia Toro Rosso in France.

Though the pair famously did not get on in 2007, Alonso is quick to back his former arch-rival, arguing that the 23-year-old is not making more errors in year two.

"The second year is more difficult," the Spaniard is quoted by the Daily Telegraph, "but I don't think he has made more mistakes. It's just that this is Formula One. It is not an easy sport, and sometimes you are a little bit unlucky and you lose a couple of points.

"With the lights in Canada, you brake one metre earlier and you don't crash, and you get some points. It is these small details and some unlucky moments that put you out of the points."

The double F1 world champion did add in an interview with Spanish newspaper Diario AS, however, that he would not relish a replay of his 2007 campaign, after Hamilton recently admitted that he missed his duels with Alonso from last year and wanted someone to push him that much again.

"No," the 26-year old Oviedo-born star urged when asked if he felt the same way, "because I truly believe that the duels were not entirely fair.

"I do not have very good memories of how things were. This year has been a difficult one for me in terms of results, but it has been incredibly enjoyable."