Lewis Hamilton insists last year's crash with Nico Rosberg at the Belgian Grand Prix will have no bearing on the outcome of Sunday's race.
The Mercedes pair are revisiting the scene of the defining moment in their championship battle for the first time.
Dicing for the lead on lap two, Rosberg's front wing made contact with Hamilton's left-rear tyre. Hamilton was forced to retire following the damage he sustained in the incident while Rosberg crossed the line in second place.
Hamilton, who was subsequently cast 29 points adrift of Rosberg, accused his team-mate of deliberately crashing into him. The German later accepted responsibility for the incident and was issued a substantial fine by Mercedes.
Rosberg, whose wife Vivian is due to give birth to their first child next week, tasted victory in just one of the seven remaining races. Hamilton, in contrast, romped to victory at the other six, before clinching the title at the season decider in Abu Dhabi.
"It feels really good this weekend," said Hamilton, who heads into the second half of the season with a 21-point lead over his team-mate.
"I saw Nico at the airport. We didn't talk, we just said 'hi', and the first time we saw each other in the meeting room we were talking about his baby so it is much different. There is no hangover and there is no thought about the past whatsoever."
Hamilton remains the odds-on favourite to successfully defend his championship.
But the Briton, who spent Formula One's four-week summer break in Colorado, Barbados and New York, admits he must avoid a repeat feat of his disastrous display in Hungary to claim a third title.
Hamilton started on pole, but ran off the track on the opening lap, tangled with Daniel Ricciardo and incurred a drive-through penalty. Miraculously he extended his lead over Rosberg in the championship by virtue of the German's collision, also with Ricciardo, in the closing stages of a chaotic race.
"For the first three days of the break I was thinking about the last race and then I didn't think about it," Hamilton added.
"It wasn't until halfway through last week that I started to think about it, get back on my emails, read up again on pit stops and all the things we learned from the last race and the preparation for this weekend.
"Naturally, you want to make sure those kind of weekends don't happen again so of course I thought about it and I will be better prepared."
Hamilton, who played second fiddle to a dominant Rosberg in practice here on Friday, was rarely out of the spotlight during the summer break. His social media posts coupled with his showbiz appeal makes him Formula One's biggest draw. But Hamilton is not averse to the attention.
"My friends call me Eagle Eye - I don't know why, but I see everything," he added. "There is a camera over there in the bushes and they are like 'where, how do you see it', and I am like 'there, right there' - they have to look down my arm to see where I am looking.
"I think it is kind of cool. I think it is kind of neat as long as they get good pictures - as long as there aren't pictures of me poking my finger up my nose or something."
Source: PA
