Try as he might, Lewis Hamilton just cannot erase the impression that he is doing his best to lose the 2008 Formula One world championship.

The McLaren driver spent the days leading up to the Japanese Grand Prix talking about how he was so much better prepared for the title showdown than he was in his debut season last year.

He was calmer, he said, more relaxed and a better person all round. He did not like driving for points but if that’s what it took, fine.

It lasted until the moment the lights went out at the start in Fuji. As Hamilton’s McLaren bogged down off the line and he lost the lead to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, the Englishman appeared to lose his head as well.

It made for a wild first few minutes to a highly entertaining race but wildness is exactly what Hamilton had said he was trying to avoid.

Hamilton did not need to beat Raikkonen, and there was certainly no desperate need to try to make immediate amends for his slow start. All he should have been worrying about was Felipe Massa – who was starting four places behind him.

But in trying to pass the Finn he wrecked his tyres and earned himself a penalty which – controversial though it might have been – cannot have surprised Hamilton, given his history with race officials.

Hamilton was blameless for the collision with Massa on the second lap, but it is all beginning to carry eerie echoes of last year, when Hamilton had what appeared to be a comfortable championship lead going into the final two races of the year, only to lose out to Raikkonen.

In 2007, the mistake that unpicked what had until then been a stunning debut season was in China, when he slid off the road on his way into the pits.

The error was precipitated by a crazy decision from McLaren to leave him out too long on worn tyres – all in the pursuit of trying to win a race he did not need to win.

Well aware of this, McLaren have said they are determined to take a conservative approach to the climax of the season – and this was the mantra Hamilton was repeating prior to the race.

But Hamilton is a racer – put him in a competitive situation, and his instincts take over.

It is what makes him so exciting to watch - but it is a characteristic he will have to dilute if he is to win as many championships as his talent deserves.

But there is another part of Hamilton’s make-up that is even more worrying - his apparent vulnerability to pressure.

Last year, that was on view in China and in the final race in Brazil, when he unnecessarily tried to pass his then team-mate Fernando Alonso on the outside after losing a place to him on the first lap. He ended up off the track.

This season, though, it has been apparent throughout the year.

After winning the first Grand Prix of the season, Hamilton was distinctly off-form in the next two races.

He later admitted that he “put a lot of pressure on myself, too much – and that led to mistakes, being too on the limit”.

But the mistakes have kept coming:

He crashed into the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari in Canada. He got a penalty in the next race in France after cutting a chicane. He controversially lost a win in Belgium for doing the same thing, and then made a catastrophic call on tyres in qualifying in Italy.

That final mistake was rooted more in his self-confidence – which comes from within and is fed by brilliant performances such as the one that took him to victory in atrocious conditions in the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton was so good at Silverstone it was almost other-worldly – but too often this season he has looked all too human.

The mistakes he has made are to be expected of a driver in only his second full season.

Some allowance has to be made for a man who is just 23 and has had probably the most pressure-laden introduction to F1 in history, as a result of his precocious talent being thrust straight into a title-contending car and his global appeal.

And one trusts that, as he matures, he will iron the mistakes out.

Nevertheless, the overall impression is of a man who has yet to learn how to make the right decisions under pressure.

After making so many errors, it is astonishing that Hamilton is still in contention for the championship, and he is fortunate to be facing a rival who has his own flaws.

For all the progress Massa has made since he joined Ferrari in 2006, he is not generally regarded as an absolute top-liner, and his season, too, has been characterised by a significant number of errors.

Instead, the man who has put in probably the best all-round performance this season is Robert Kubica, the surprise third title contender in what promise to be a gripping final two races.

The Pole, who was never completely out of championship contention despite BMW’s slump in the second half of the season, is now only 12 points behind Hamilton after his second place in Japan.

His BMW is probably not quick enough to make the title a realistic possibility for him.

But imagine what might have happened had BMW not decided after Kubica’s win in Canada in June to a) focus development on their 2009 car; and b) concentrate more on sorting out team-mate Nick Heidfeld’s problems than on Kubica.

Imagine, too, what Kubica – an old rival of Hamilton’s from their karting days - might have achieved in a Ferrari or a McLaren.

The same could be said for the winner of Sunday’s race, Fernando Alonso – a man who, unlike Kubica, has proven his credentials in a title battle.

The double world champion had a rocky start to the season, making his own share of mistakes as he tried to force what was then an uncompetitive Renault into places it did not deserve to be.

But as Renault have upped their game, so the Spaniard has done the same, cutting out the errors while maintaining his determination and pace.

His win in Singapore a fortnight ago owed a fair bit to luck – but the one in Japan did not.

It was one of Alonso’s best drives, and he is looking once more like the man who beat Michael Schumacher in a straight fight, rather than the figure diminished by his fall-out with Hamilton and McLaren last year.

Then, Hamilton’s genius - and Alonso’s discomfort within the McLaren set-up – made it appear as if one was about to replace the other as The Man within F1.

That may well happen – but not just yet, not until Hamilton proves he can deliver under pressure.

Hamilton remains a great talent, but he has work to do before he can join the winner of the Japanese Grand Prix as a truly great driver.