Hamilton determined to avoid another China crisis

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Lewis Hamilton has revealed he has relived his nightmare 2007 Formula One Chinese Grand Prix, but insists he is a better driver for it.

Holding a 12-point championship lead, the Englishman was out in front of last year's Shanghai race when he came into the pitlane and slithered into the gravel trap, his tires virtually bald.

It was the hammer blow to his rookie title hopes, but 2008 finds the McLaren man determined not to see a similar conclusion.

He said: "Sometimes I've been on YouTube and seen a video clip or a picture of me in the gravel last year and thought, 'Damn! That shouldn't have happened.'"

"But it was a learning mistake. I can still move forwards from it; things like that happen for a reason and it taught me a lot.

"Last year, the last couple of races taught me a lot about my personality and my life. And I'm stronger for it." Read more about F1 at The Circuit.

But question marks remain over Hamilton's ability to cope with the pressure of being the championship favorite going into the last few races.

His erratic performance in Japan a week ago, when he managed to turn pole position into 12th at the finish, underlined that, at 23 and in just his second F1 season, he still has much to learn.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa is Hamilton's nearest title rival -- just five points behind -- although he gave an equally up-and-down display in finishing seventh at Fuji.

"It's always important to score more points than our closest rivals at this point in the championship, with just two races to go, so we can be pleased that we managed to do that," he said.

"But there are still those five points, so we need to recover even more, but I think the Japanese result was better than nothing.

"Our car was quite competitive, which means I think we can expect to be equally competitive for the final two rounds of the championship."

Hovering in the background of the title fight and determined to become more than just a footnote is the single-minded Robert Kubica, of BMW.

Since winning his first grand prix in Canada in June, the Pole has only made three visits to the podium.

But he has quietly gathered points as his rivals have faltered and finds himself 12 points behind Hamilton -- which is a smaller deficit by five points than reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen faced going into the final two races of 2007.

"There is nothing to lose. I think Kimi showed last year that anything is possible," said Kubica, who needs problems to beset his rivals this weekend to take his challenge on to the last race in Brazil on November 2.

"The difference is that I have two guys in front of me, not one, and at normal pace it's no secret that we are not as fast as Massa and Hamilton, so life is a bit more difficult but everything can still happen.

"We didn't improve a lot lately with the car, so this didn't help me but still in the last two races everything is possible."