Lewis Hamilton has described Fernando Alonso’s behaviour at McLaren Mercedes last season as a classic example of how not to react when under pressure from a teammate in Formula One.

In a revealing remark during interviews yesterday at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia after a day of testing in the new McLaren MP4-23, Hamilton said of the former world champion who has rejoined Renault: “He showed me just how not to behave as an F1 driver.”

Hamilton added that he hoped that he would act more professionally than Alonso if put in the same situation. This was obviously a reference to the way Alonso tried to force Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal, to give him preferential treatment over Hamilton in the face of the British rookie’s excellent form in the car.

Hamilton underlined that he will be expecting no such favours from Dennis this season as he battles with Heikki Kovalainen, his new teammate, from Finland.

“I just like fairness,” he said, “and I want Heikki to have exactly the same opportunities and, if he does and I beat him, then there’s the reward. If I beat him on the same tyres, the same engine and knowing all that, you just know you’re a better driver.”

The Briton also said that he has no excuses this year and he wants to be world champion by the end of the forthcoming season, having missed out on the title by one point to Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, after the final race of last year, in Brazil.

“In terms of my overall package, there’s no excuses,” he said. “Last year the only excuse was that I was a rookie and that it was all new. But this year I’ll continue to learn so, sure, there will always be mistakes but I don’t feel there is any room for error.”

In yesterday’s running in Valencia, Raikkonen was quickest with Kovalainen second fastest and Hamilton fifth. The new Honda RA108s were also in evidence, with Takashi Kogure at the wheel of one and Jenson Button driving the other. They finished at the bottom of the timesheet.