Hamilton vows not to change approach

The Briton had a race to forget in Sakhir, losing the championship lead after failing to score in a race where he said he had let his McLaren team down.

But Hamilton insisted on Thursday he is not dwelling in the past and he feels ready to return to winning ways.

"Straight after the race I knew what had gone wrong and I knew how to correct it, so the next few days were just dealing with the fact I had a poor performance, so I got back to training and making sure I came here fresh," Hamilton told reporters in Barcelona.

"It is always the key, turning it around and coming back stronger.

"I approach it in the same way and obviously I won't be making the same mistake again. This weekend being here, feeling fresh after a good break from racing, and making sure we come here fresh has been important. I feel good."

Hamilton, now in third place in the standings behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and BMW's Nick Heidfeld, believes the championship will be intense, with three teams now fighting on top.

"For sure going into the season we thought it was going to be a Ferrari versus McLaren fight, similar to last year, but BMW have made a good step forward but the whole paddock have made a good step forwards," he added.

"We see in qualifying we are closer than last year in terms of the gap between all the cars, so it must be more spectacular to watch. For us as well, having another challenger and trying to beat another team is good fun."

The McLaren driver believes the start of the European season will not necessarily be a good indicator of what to expect in the remaining part of the year, and he reckons things will change from one circuit to another.

"People say that, but I don't particularly agree," he said. Last year Ferrari were very, very fast here and so were we, but it is different at every track.

"Obviously we do a lot of testing here and it is a great circuit to do that, the weather is always good and wind quite low, so good for testing and finding pace of the car but all the tracks are different.

"Coming back into Europe, I am very, very excited and be happy to be closer to home and to start it out in Barcelona, this is one of the most historical circuits on the F1 calendar and it is one of the best as well."