Hamilton: 'F1 title is untainted'

Updated 10.47 Mon Sep 17 2007

Keywords: Ferrari, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Formula One, sport

Lewis Hamilton has hit back at claims by FIA president Max Mosley that becoming Formula One's first rookie champion would be tainted by the so-called 'spygate' saga.

Hamilton's team McLaren were hit with a £50 million fine by the World Motor Sport Council ahead of Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix after a confidential Ferrari dossier was found in the possession of their suspended chief designer.

"I feel this is a worthy world title. We have all worked hard this year and the way I feel, the team have done absolutely nothing wrong" - Lewis Hamilton

But Hamilton is determined to end his maiden season in the sport in style, despite team-mate Fernando Alonso cutting his lead at the top of the World Drivers' Championship down to just two points while Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa have further cranked up the pressure after a second successive Ferrari one-two finish at Spa.

The 22-year-old McLaren driver, who veered off the track after almost touching wheels with Alonso after a first corner clash at the La Source hairpin, said: "I don't particularly have anything to say to, or about, Max Mosley.

"But I feel this is a worthy world title. We have all worked hard this year and the way I feel, the team have done absolutely nothing wrong.

"I have taken the opportunity I have been given, and just done as good a job as I could with it. I don't see why people will say, if I win, it is a tainted championship."

Alonso, who now has 95 points with three races to go after his third-place finish in Belgium, is desperate to seal a hat-trick of World Drivers' crowns having ended Michael Schumacher's stranglehold on the title in his final two years at Renault.

When asked about the incident which appeared to see the Spaniard run him off the track, a stinging Hamilton replied: "I feel for someone always complaining about people doing unfair manoeuvres and everyone wanting to be fair, and as someone I look up to, he has gone and swiped me and pushed me as wide as he could.

"I was just really lucky there was a run-off area so I could take that."

Alonso naturally shrugged aside any suggestions of deliberately impeding Hamilton, while team boss Ron Dennis claimed it was "motor racing, and nothing more.... It was a little bit on the edge.

"They will have a conversation about it and then they will move on. This is just one of those things, pushing on each other.

"They are fighting for the world championship so they are going to be a little bit tough on each other. But it's nothing. They didn't touch and they were squeezing each other."

Raikkonen's fourth victory of the season at Spa and his 13th in all in Formula One leaves him 13 points adrift of Hamilton at the top of the standings with team-mate Massa a further seven points off the pace.

It also saw Ferrari wrap up the World Constructors' Championship title pending a possible appeal by McLaren after the team were stripped of all points in spying scandal.