Lewis Hamilton appeared in grave danger of slipping into paranoia after the French Grand Prix as he struggled to deal with the disappointment of a second pointless race in succession.

Of course, as the saying goes, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

But Hamilton's grievances against the newspapers and the stewards risk playing into the hands of the people he really does have to worry about - Ferrari.

The Englishman is now 10 points behind Felipe Massa, and five behind Kimi Raikkonen, margins that will be difficult enough to close if he is fully on his game, let alone if he is distracted by irrelevancies.

Hamilton's interview with ITV and BBC Radio 5 Live after Sunday's race in Magny-Cours was painful listening, especially coming after one he gave to ITV after qualifying.

"There's nothing you can do that can distract me," Hamilton said. "You can keep on giving me penalties, whatever you want. I'll keep battling, and trying to come back with a result.”

His use of the word “you” seemed an odd formulation of language. He was answering questions posed by ITV's Louise Goodman and 5 Live’s Holly Samos, in the company of a throng of assembled media, when he said that.

"I feel cool,” he added, sounding anything but. “It's all good. Racing's racing. I'm still here. There's nothing you can do to get me out of here.”

Hamilton felt he was hard done by in being given a drive-through penalty for gaining an advantage by going off the track – he felt he had done nothing wrong.

It’s difficult to judge without seeing more conclusive coverage than was provided on TV – and certainly other offenders have not been punished in the past.

Yet the reporters had not put Hamilton in that position, and it was certainly not them who had imposed the penalty.

"Regardless of what's written in the papers tomorrow," he went on. "I'm going to push with the team and we're going to focus on the next race and we're going to hit 'em hard."

Hamilton has made it clear he was unhappy with some of the press coverage following the previous race in Canada.

But it was not the newspapers' fault that he crashed into the back of Raikkonen’s Ferrari in the Montreal pit lane, and earned himself the 10-place grid penalty that led to his problems in France as he sought to make up ground at the start of the race.

Blaming the media for problems that have nothing to do with them is a tactic often employed by sportsmen when they come under pressure of their own making.

Perhaps it helps them deal with difficult situations by giving them a focus for their discontent. Certainly, it is sometimes easier to direct accusations at others than it is to accept that it just might be yourself who is at fault.

Whatever, it is difficult to escape the thought that Hamilton's season is in danger of unravelling if he cannot find a more effective way of dealing with the pressure under which he currently finds himself.

This is not the first time this year that Hamilton has been struggling in a manner that seemed so unlikely as he sailed serenely through his debut season in 2007.

Then, as he took nine consecutive podiums in his first nine Grands Prix, as he pushed team-mate Fernando Alonso, the world's most complete racing driver, to the limit and beyond, it seemed as if he could do no wrong.

How times have changed. His mistake in France - however small it was - was his fourth error this season, and it followed hot on the heels of his third – the pit lane crash in Canada.

Before that, there had been two in one race in Bahrain. There, he failed to follow the correct start procedure on the grid, which saw him drop from third to 10th by the first corner – a mistake compounded when he drove into the back of Alonso's Renault shortly afterwards, knocking off his car's nose. He finished 13th.

That race in Bahrain followed a difficult event in Malaysia, and there were reports at the time that he was out of sorts, struggling with unknown demons.

Hamilton later admitted that he had not, at that point, been getting pleasure from his racing.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself," he said over the Canadian GP weekend. "Too much. And that led to mistakes, being too on the limit. I wasn't really enjoying it, to be honest."

He expanded on those remarks in an interview with BBC 5 Live's David Croft in the week after the Montreal race, admitting that he "can't begin to explain how much pressure I have on my shoulders".

After the race in France on Sunday, that pressure was plain to see.

Hamilton remains a once-in-a-generation talent, a sportsman of sublime ability who clearly has the talent to carve himself a permanent place in F1's pantheon.

But right now the impression is that things are happening too fast, even for this remarkably precocious young man.

Last year, as he stunned the world with his performances as the greatest ever F1 debutant, it seemed easy. That, though, was a less complicated time. If he beat Alonso, he was a hero; if he did not, well, that was just to be expected.

Even then, though, he showed hints of a vulnerability to pressure - when he slid into retirement on his way into the pits in China with the title in his grasp; and again when he pointlessly tried to race Alonso in the decisive race in Brazil, and ended up off the track on the first lap, when all he had to do to be world champion was sit behind the Spaniard.

This year is different. With Alonso gone, McLaren are looking to Hamilton to deliver, and the Englishman's focus is all on himself.

He has to lead the team. He is the one who has to take the fight to Ferrari. He is the one with all the pressure on his shoulders.

It is understandable that Hamilton is finding it hard – he is only 23, after all, with several years to go before he reaches full maturity as a racing driver.

But things are unlikely to get any easier in the immediate future. The next race is the British Grand Prix, and the pressure is only going to build with the attention of an expectant home crowd, and Hamilton’s own desire to win the race.

Yet the chances of Hamilton closing the growing gap to the Ferrari drivers at Silverstone are not great - the track is expected to favour the red cars.

There will be other chances, of course, other tracks that will suit the McLaren more than the Ferrari, where Hamilton will have a chance to respond.

But as the championship builds inexorably towards its climax, the spotlight on Hamilton is only going to get brighter.

He needs to find a way to calm everything down, get back a sense of stability, of internal peace, a place from which he can concentrate on what really matters.

And whatever he thinks, railing against the media, targeting an enemy that does not exist, is unlikely to help.