Zoom Hamilton now setting his mind on Monza

Lewis Hamilton saw his Belgian Grand Prix victory taken away on Sunday following a controversial decision taken by the race stewards. While the McLaren Mercedes team intends to present an appeal in hopes of restoring the win, the next round of the championship is already in preparation.

With only a few days between the Belgian event and the Italian Grand Prix at the famous Monza circuit, Hamilton steered away from the controversy and concentrated on the work ahead during a Q&A session appearing on his website.

Lewis, the challenge for the world title lies ahead of you – tell us something about how you prepare for a Grand Prix weekend, particularly during this high-pressure part of the season.

"At most races, I arrive on a Wednesday or a Thursday, it's good to be chilled and relaxed when you get to the track because there's a lot of work to do. One of the first things I like to do is walk the track with my engineers. After that, we'll go through a run programme for the weekend – we'll discuss the changes we might have made in testing, what we'll be running on the car that's new and what we expect to do throughout the two free practice sessions on Friday. Then it's a bit of media work, interviews and TV stuff, dinner in the Brand Centre and an early night. "

How important is the relationship between you and your race engineer?

"It's one of the closest bonds you have in racing so it's essential that you have a good, close working relationship. My race engineer is Phil Prew, and we spend a lot of the time talking together with the other engineers, looking at the data, thinking about set-up and drawing everything together so that when we get in the car, we know what we are doing and what direction we are going in."

How do you plan your opening laps of practice on a Friday?

"Well, firstly, we do a lot of work back at the McLaren Technology Centre to ensure we arrive at each track in very good shape set-up wise. That means when we hit the track on Friday morning I normally have a pretty good idea of how the car needs to be, how to find its sweet spot. It's never a good idea to make a snap judgment on the car, because the track is often dirty and slippery, but that first impression is usually pretty representative of your overall pace – I can feel if the car is going to be good or not."

What sort of changes do you make to the car?