Hamilton not thinking about China title

The McLaren driver can clinch the title today if he claims six points more than rival Felipe Massa. But despite the possibility of that, and the fact he has been so fast all weekend en route to pole position, Hamilton says he will bide his time until Brazil if necessary.

"I haven't thought about it," said Hamilton about the possibility of winning the title in China. "You have to approach it as the next two races. I'm not going into Sunday saying that's the day that we have to do everything. We're just going to take it easy and try to score as many points as we can."

Hamilton arrived in China amid fresh controversy after his first corner error in Fuji resulted in him losing ground in the title chase to Massa.

But despite what happened in Japan, Hamilton insists he will not be changing his approach to racing, or how he deals with the first turn here.

"Obviously you have to take the last race into account and I'll put that into my memory bank and try not to make that mistake again," he said. "I have to approach turn one in the same way I've approached every race in Formula One and hopefully it will be a bit more straightforward than it was in Fuji."

And Hamilton is sure that Massa's teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who starts alongside him on the grid, will not do anything unfair when they fight for position.

"For sure, they'll be very competitive at the start and it will be hard to beat them off the start, but they will be in a better position to attack," Hamilton said about Ferrari. "If they are ahead of me, it doesn't matter.

"As long as Felipe Massa is behind me that's positive. Our race pace is very good, but we don't know what's going to happen. Hopefully the weather will stay the same but maybe it will rain.

He added: "Kimi is world champion and he's not a stupid guy. He wants to win as much as everyone else does, so I have every confidence he will be sensible."