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Hamilton preparing for damage limitation

Lewis Hamilton is expecting another tough weekend © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Belgian Grand Prix

• Championship:
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• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren
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• Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton is preparing himself for another weekend of damage limitation in the championship fight, after predicting that his McLaren will not be any further up the order than it was in Hungary four weeks ago.

Hamilton slipped off the top of the title standings at the last round when he suffered a retirement and Mark Webber won the race. McLaren has been outpaced by Red Bull and Ferrari at the last two races and Hamilton is not expecting a dramatic reshuffle this weekend.

"I don't think anything will change after the shutdown," he said. "I expect the car to be the same as after the last race. We have to do some more tests while here on Friday and Saturday to get more information back to understand where extra time and extra downforce is, and only then can we really move forward."

He said he felt there was plenty of potential within the car and said that McLaren would attempt to unlock it to keep in touch with Red Bull.

"We believe there is still some untapped downforce in the car that we have not been able to use at the moment, or at least draw out," Hamilton added. "The team are working flat out as always to try and pull that out. I am trying to do everything I can to encourage and paying very close attention to what is going on and keeping a close eye on everything.

However, he does think the MP4-25 will be better suited to the fast sweeping curves of Spa Francorchamps than it was to the tight and twisting Hungaroring.

"Obviously there are a lot of high speed corners here but you still need efficient downforce," he said. "We should be a little bit better here than we were in Hungary - I am looking forward to tomorrow. Hope the weather clears up as it's not so great for us at the moment."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.