SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) - Now that they are
fighting only for themselves and not for their team as well, the gloves have
well and truly came off in Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's world
championship scrap.

Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa clinched a Ferrari one-two in the Belgian
Grand Prix on Sunday but the major talking point was the opening corner battle
between McLaren teammates Alonso and Hamilton, who went on to finish third and
fourth respectively.

After McLaren's expulsion from the constructors' championship in Thursday's
spy hearing, Hamilton and Alonso no longer have any reason to look out for one
another on the track.

And it took only until the first corner for Alonso, desperately defending
his third position, to force Hamilton off the track and almost out of the
race.

After the race the 22-year-old British rookie, now leading the championship
by just two points, was upset with Alonso's aggressive defence.

"The guy on the outside doesn't always have the corner," Hamilton said.

"I don't know whether I was ahead, but there was enough room for us all to
get round fair and square.

"I just feel for someone that's always complaining about people doing
unfair manoeuvres, and everyone wanting to be fair, someone I look up to, he
has gone and swiped me and pushed me as wide as he could. I was just really
lucky there was a run-off area so I could take that."

He added: "We all had equal starts, perhaps a little bit better for me than
for Fernando. I braked quite late and was on the outside quite close to the
Ferraris. I started to accelerate and all of a sudden Fernando came sweeping
across me, and he knew I was there, so..."

Alonso denied that the change of circumstances has led to a difference in
the way he and Hamilton will race against each other for the remainder of the
season.

"Same approach," he said after leaving the podium at Spa-Francorchamps.

"Today it was just coincidence that we started third and fourth, sometimes
we are spread second and fourth or whatever.

"We arrived together at the first corner and here at Spa it is a little bit
more tricky because it is a 180 degrees corner. So I think it was just that,
nothing changed in the approach."

The McLaren pair would not even still be racing for the drivers' title if
FIA president Max Mosley had held the deciding vote in Thursday's 'spygate'
case.

Before the race in Belgium, Mosley said: "I would have taken all the points
away from Hamilton and Alonso on the grounds that there is a suspicion they had
an advantage that they should not have had.

"A significant majority on the council thought they should keep their
points, about five (mostly lawyers) thought all the points should go."

The championship now heads for Japan and China before October's season
finale in Brazil.