Hamilton puts tyre failure behind him

MONZA, Italy, Sep 7 (Reuters) Lewis Hamilton expects to be back up to speed in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix after a tyre failure robbed the championship leader of precious points in Turkey two weeks ago.

Tyre suppliers Bridgestone have blamed a phenomenon known as 'chunking', when small pieces of rubber debris get stuck to the tyre and form chunks, for the dramatic failure that sent the 22-year-old McLaren driver from third to fifth place in Istanbul.

The Briton, who leads double world champion team mate Fernando Alonso by five points with five races remaining, said the explanation 'did not make a huge amount of sense' to him.

''I don't understand why it happened, whether it was bad luck or not,'' he told reporters at Monza yesterday.

''But that's in the past, I don't blame Bridgestone,'' he added.

''We need these sort of experiences to improve. They have not made any mistakes all year so I think this is something they can learn from and move forward.'' The Briton, preparing for the fastest circuit on the calendar, was thankful that he had escaped unscathed from the tyre burst.

''I have not had a tyre go like that before. I was quite fortunate that it happened when it did, if it was going to happen at all, and not through a high speed corner as another shunt into a wall would not be comfortable,'' he said.

''I already had quite a big one at the Nuerburging, so I want to avoid another one.'' Hamilton, winner of three races in his astonishing 12 grand prix career, expected to fight back at Ferrari's home circuit after a strong showing in Monza testing last week.

''Since the last race I definitely feel we have made a step forward like we do at every race, there is always something new on the car and we make a step forward,'' he said.

''I think we have made a similar step forward to when we were at Monaco and I really think the team did a great job developing the aero package for here.

''They were strong here last year and also with our engine everything is feeling quite good....I think we will be more competitive here than McLaren have been in the past years.'' REUTERS BJR SSC1105