Lewis Hamilton feels he is far better equipped to mount a Formula One world title challenge throughout the second half of this year compared to last season.
After nine races of his debut campaign, Hamilton had not even been off the podium such was the runaway success of the then rookie.
That gave Hamilton a 12-point cushion over his rivals heading into the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring where his season slowly started to unravel.
A high-speed crash in qualifying in which Hamilton bruised ribs was followed by the 23-year-old McLaren driver failing to score a point for the first time as he trailed home ninth.
A year on and Hamilton again leads the championship, but only by virtue of countback as he is level on points with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa.
But on this occasion, and spurred by his rip-roaring success in the British Grand Prix 12 days ago, Hamilton is currently flying high as he proved by blitzing Hockenheim in practice ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix.
After finishing more than 0.6 seconds quicker than team-mate Heikki Kovalainen at the end of the day, and 0.7secs to Massa in the second session in particular, Hamilton could not be happier.
"I feel much, much better than last year. I feel much more positive and confident as a driver than I did last year," said Hamilton.
"We've made some good steps with the car, and we just need to keep on pushing and not forget that there is a long way to go.
"Today was certainly a very productive day for us as a team. It was a very strong performance and just showed we are very competitive with a strong package.
"We didn't have any problems. I feel good, I feel comfortable, I feel pretty relaxed.
"We've made some very good steps forward, but I don't think there will be a gap of seven tenths tomorrow. It will be very close, within a couple of tenths."
Despite the victory at Silverstone, Hamilton feels only a strong result in Sunday's race will help him gather momentum to sustain his challenge throughout the second half of the season.
"I don't think one race gives you momentum, it gives you a boost," added Hamilton.
"We had a good race and hopefully we can have a good one this weekend, score some more points and then build the momentum.
"But we really haven't changed much from the last race. We have a very similar performance to Silverstone, especially in the dry.
"The weather looks like it might rain, so who knows, but whatever happens I feel confident we can definitely challenge for the front row (in qualifying)."
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