FUJI SPEEDWAY: Formula One rookie Lewis Hamilton has fanned the flames of his row with teammate Fernando Alonso by claiming that McLaren would prefer him to win the world championship.
Spaniard Alonso's future at McLaren has been openly questioned recently after it emerged that his relationship with team principal Ron Dennis has broken down to the point where they have not spoken for months.
Evidence provided by Alonso was pivotal in last month's FIA 'spygate' hearing, at which McLaren were fined 100 million dollars and thrown out of the constructors' championship, a punishment that Alonso, unlike Hamilton, did not travel to Paris to see handed out.
Hamilton, who leads Alonso in the driver's race by just two points going into Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix in Fuji, believes that Alonso's conduct has lost him respect within the McLaren garage and the 22-year-old now believes that he commands greater support within the team.
Hamilton said: "When you are in a relationship with a certain amount of people, you do the best job you can and want to show to everyone that you are the one for the team.
"In this situation, I was a rookie and he was the two-time world champion coming into the team. He is the one that was looked at to bring it home, but eventually I have earned more respect from them."
"And since what's gone on in the last few weeks they've realised who the real people are in the team and who they really should back. I feel my bond with the team is even stronger."
Hamilton admits that he has been forced to change his opinion of Alonso, the man he has watched and admired over the past few years.
"You try to understand these people but then the whole idea of what sort of person they are is completely miles out of the ball park," he said. "He is not the person I imagined him to be, but that's the way it is."
Since Hamilton emerged as a genuine title rival, Alonso has repeatedly complained that he has been treated unfairly and that Hamilton has been given advantages.
Hamilton, though, believes that since he was denied the chance to compete with Alonso for victory in Monaco back in May, McLaren have treated both drivers with an even hand.
He added: "I want to win it (the title) fair and square. Not once have I approached the team members and asked to be favoured. It is just not something I have done at any team, asking for better equipment."
"After Monaco they didn't know what to do with the strategy so they made us equal and gave us equal fuel loads and whoever outqualifies the other has done the better job."
"I want to win it the right way. The best feeling ever is when you know you have won and you have beaten someone as talented as he is with the exact same equipment and exactly the same opportunity."
