Hamilton predicts battle to the wire

The McLaren driver, whose victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last weekend put him level on points at the top of the drivers' table alongside Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, says that he does not expect any driver to break away in the second half of the season.

"I can only guess, but I am sure it will be a lot like last year," he said in Hockenheim, where he is testing for McLaren.

"Last year it was just as close between the top three drivers and there was one point separating us at the end. So I can only assume it will be at the last race again.

"I hope it's not, but..."

Hamilton believes that his team can provide him with the equipment to win the title this season.

While the balance of power between McLaren and Ferrari may have appeared to have swung back and forth so far this season, the Briton considers the opposite to be true.

"I think we have been consistently quick except for at two races which were Bahrain and Malaysia, where we weren't as fast," said Hamilton. "But I think without the problems we had in Sepang we would have been third and fourth. To be honest I think we have been very, very consistent all year.

"I don't have an excuse or a reason for why it has been up and down. But this is racing, you can't just have a perfect year, you don't have perfect years.

"There are lots of different things and problems that crop up, and as you saw Ferrari had their problems at the last race [in Silverstone]. But then we have had our fair share, that's racing."

Hamilton also admitted that given McLaren's consistent performance level, his mistake in Canada, where the 23-year-old drove into rival Raikkonen while the Ferrari driver was stopped at the pitlane exit, has almost certainly cost him a clear championship lead.

"If you look at Montreal - we were blindingly quick there and it is just a shame that we didn't win," he said. "We clearly had the quicker car, it was unfortunate, then having the penalty in Magny-Cours it put us in a worse position.

"If I hadn't crashed in Montreal then we would have won the race, we would have gone to Magny-Cours without the ten-place penalty and we probably would have finished in the top three and the championship positions would have been different.

"But that is just the way racing is and that's what makes thing exciting."