Hamilton out to stop Alonso's charge

Hamilton heads into the Japanese Grand Prix with just a two-point lead over Alonso, but more unsettling is the fact that the Spaniard has outpaced him in the last two events.

But having sat down with the team during the two-week gap since Belgium, Hamilton thinks he understands where Alonso has been able to eke out an edge.

"I have been working hard since the last race trying to understand where I can find time and where I have been losing time, and I understand it now," he said at Fuji on Thursday afternoon.

"So, I have a feeling that this weekend will be a lot better than the previous few. I am feeling relaxed and we have made some good steps forward in the car as well."

Hamilton believes that one of the key areas where he has lost out to Alonso is in the set-up direction he has taken in recent races.

"Usually Fernando and I have similar set-ups, and more often than not it is the set-up I found from tests," he explained.

"I do the first day and a half, find a set-up and then Pedro (de la Rosa) or Fernando turn up and drive my car. Then they either like it or make some changes to it.

"So then we go to a race and we have got a very similar set-up or they have tweaked it a little bit. At the last race especially I went somewhere else on my set-up, thinking it was the right way and we were wrong.

"It was miles apart and, although I was not that far off his times, I feel that if my set-up was a lot further in the other direction it would have been a lot better.

"When you go through the Friday tests you haven't got much time to change it, or take big risks, so you go into qualifying and you are stuck with what you have got. You can't always get it right, and I definitely didn't get it right in the last races."

With the title fight so finely poised, Hamilton admits he has needed to freshen up his approach for the final three races - especially with his teammate having more experience of the last two events on the schedule.

"He knows Shanghai very well, and he knows Brazil very well, but that has never stopped me from beating him in other places so I am not worried," said Hamilton.

"It is difficult to say what is going to happen at this race or the next race. Either of us could have a bad race and that could really spice things up. The key for me is just to make sure that I finish in the top three, get as many points as possible, and preferably win.

"The break has been pretty good. I came out here a few days early as well, just being a bit of a tourist and relaxing. I quite like the Asian culture to be honest.

"The people are very nice and friendly, I am not really getting hassled on the street, apart from a few people, and I have been able to get my mind off things and prepare for a new approach, a more fresh approach."