THE British media understandably rally behind one of their own but I cannot help thinking we are getting a slightly one-sided view of the Formula One head to head between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

It has been eight years since we last had a UK driver involved in the championship race. Worse still, that was Eddie Irvine.

The annoyingly arrogant Northern Irishman lost out to Mika Hakkinen in 1999 and many were glad his ego had not been given the opportunity to expand further.

This time it is different. Hamilton is young and generally unassuming - and English.

If he does win this year's championship in his first season in F1, it will have been one of the greatest achievements in modern motor racing.

But he is not perfect, something that seems to have been overlooked recently, and he was far from blameless in the recent Hungaroring incident that brought his feud with Alonso - his main rival for the championship - into the open.

Alonso was castigated for blocking Hamilton in the pit lane and preventing him from having enough time to complete his last lap in qualifying.

Alonso, who had qualified on pole, was relegated to sixth on the grid and eventually finished the race fourth as Hamilton took first place.

What was generally overlooked was that Alonso's misdemeanour came in retaliation to Hamilton ignoring team orders earlier in qualifying, which hampered the Spaniard's own attempts.

I can imagine the Spanish media seeing events a little differently to how they were reported here, when big, bad Alonso was criticised for daring to get in the way of little Lewis.

The British media has become a little bit hysterical on all things Lewis and the coverage may yet harm his chances of winning the championship.

The pressure certainly seems to have forced mistakes at McLaren, where boss Ron Dennis is starting to look suicidal despite having the best two drivers in the world within his team.

Hamilton seems to have a little bit of the steel and selfishness that Michael Schumacher had.

Maybe that is not such a bad thing, but it has to be acknowledged in the same way that Schumi was always pulled up whenever he went too far.

But Hamilton has shown incredible maturity and for that alone he deserves to win the title.

And, although Steve Rider is not in the same class as Jim Rosenthal as a presenter, ITV's coverage continues to be superb.

Martin Brundle's grid walk remains one of the highlights of any sporting week and it was great to see former world champion Damon Hill back on our screens as a guest co-commentator at the last race.

Just one thing, Damon. Beware of the gaffes that Murray Walker cornered the market in.

Asked whether Alonso was regretting the qualifying incident with Hamilton, Hill commented: "I'm sure that thought has gone through his mind, although I'm not a mind reader."