KEY POINTS:
BRUSSELS - McLaren's Lewis Hamilton says he needs to pull his socks up if he is to become the first rookie since 1950 to be crowned Formula One champion.
However, the 22-year-old Briton rejected a suggestion that the title would be tainted if he or Spanish team mate Fernando Alonso won it after the spy scandal that has rocked his team and the sport.
"We have all worked hard this year and the way I feel, the team have done absolutely nothing wrong," the championship leader told reporters after the Belgian Grand Prix.
The drivers' title battle is the only one McLaren are interested in now after being stripped of all their 2007 constructors' points and fined $US100 million for having Ferrari information in their possession.
"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," Hamilton said.
The first black Formula One driver and a sensation in his rookie season with three wins so far, the Briton finished fourth at Spa-Francorchamps and leads double world champion Alonso by two points with three races remaining.
"I have never felt favourite for the title. It is always easier when you are chasing someone than defending," he said.
Intense season
"When you are leading it is a lot harder to maintain that consistency and everything.
"I feel I am going to come away from this weekend, I have still got points and I think I just need to refocus myself for the last three races, it has been a fast and intense season.
"In Turkey, I had the upper hand and I was just unfortunate that my tyre exploded," he continued.
"But in the last two races Fernando has done a fantastic job, and I don't particularly feel that is going to be the way it is for the rest of the season, I just need to pull my socks up I guess.
"You have to experience losing just as much as winning, and I wouldn't particularly say I've lost this race I just haven't done as well as I could have."
The spy saga began after 780 pages of Ferrari technical information was found at the home of McLaren's now-suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan in July following a tip-off from a photocopy shop employee.
FIA President Max Mosley said at Spa that he would have taken the drivers' points away from Alonso and Hamilton, had they not been offered an amnesty in return for providing evidence.
"The lawyers all felt everything should go because how can you give the cup to a driver who may have had an unfair advantage over the other drivers. They effectively cheated," Mosley said.
"When the history comes to be written and all the emotions are gone they will say "Hang on a minute, we just don't know what happened and would (Ferrari's Kimi) Raikkonen or (Felipe) Massa have won had it not been for this information?"
Raikkonen led a Ferrari one-two in Spa and is now 13 points off Hamilton's lead.
- REUTERS
