Lewis Hamilton has vowed to hit his rivals hard in the British Grand Prix after becoming involved in what appeared to be a French farce.
Hamilton's hopes of collecting points in Sunday's French Grand Prix were wrecked by the stewards who penalised him for the second successive race.
Already suffering from a 10-place grid penalty sustained after running into the back of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari in Canada a fortnight ago, Hamilton incurred their wrath again shortly after the race start.
The 23-year-old was hit with a drive-through penalty 19 minutes in at a time when he was running ninth after starting 13th.
Yet the stewards deemed his pass on Sebastian Vettel in his Toro Rosso on lap one illegal, claiming he gained an advantage by cutting a corner.
The penalty ultimately compromised his race, with the Briton finishing 10th and out of the points for the second successive grand prix.
Hamilton, who now finds himself 10 points adrift of new championship leader Felipe Massa heading into his home race at Silverstone on July 6, was peeved but is ready to fight.
"I absolutely 100 per cent aim on bouncing back at the British Grand Prix in front of my home crowd," insisted Hamilton.
"Regardless of what's written in the papers tomorrow, I will go back to the workshop tomorrow and push with the team.
"I will see the engineers now, focus on the next race and then hit 'em hard."
Denying suggestions he looked angry after the race, Hamilton added: "I feel cool. All is good.
"I am going to keep battling because there is a long way to go. I don't care how far I am behind.
"Kimi was 13 points behind with two races to go (it was actually 17) and he still won the title.
"If I'm 20 points behind I don't care, I will still come back."
Hamilton, though, was tetchy when asked whether he felt the penalty was harsh, and whether he felt there was another conspiracy against McLaren.
On Saturday team-mate Heikki Kovalainen was penalised five grid places for impeding Mark Webber during qualifying, adding to McLaren's woes.
Hamilton refused to answer the pointed questions, although did feel he had done nothing wrong, in turn suggesting the stewards had made a mistake.
"I did everything I needed to do," added Hamilton.
"I stayed out of trouble and drove what I thought was a fair race, just missing out on the points.
"That's three races without scoring points now (this season), but there's still 10 races to go."
Reflecting on the incident with Vettel, Hamilton added: "I was ahead, but I lost the back end of the car, corrected it and went over the kerb, which I don't see as cheating, but rules are rules."
Boss Ron Dennis certainly felt his driver was harshly penalised as he said: "I just told him (FIA race director Charlie Whiting) that it was our opinion Lewis was past before he got squeezed off the circuit.
"I don't think he gained a position through being off the road, but obviously other people had a different opinion."
When asked as to his feelings on the spate of penalties incurred by his team, Dennis added: "Draw your own conclusions."
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