Lewis Hamilton believes fans are behind him

LEWIS Hamilton is determined to turn a blind eye to any negativity on his Twitter account, instead believing 99.9 per cent of his followers are on his side.

It is understood in the wake of his post-Monaco Grand Prix tirade, and in particular his ill-conceived "Maybe it's because I'm black" remark, Hamilton was on the receiving end of considerable abuse on the social networking site.

Not that the 26-year-old was aware of the comments made against him as he is intent on focusing on his real fans.

Hamilton said: "I have a Twitter account which I started at the end of last year. I saw other people were doing it and I thought it would be a good way to communicate with people certain things I was doing. I have to admit I don't use it very often, and I don't read what is said on there. I do know, though, I have messages on there good and bad, and it's easy to be distracted by things that have been said.

"Every now and then I see a positive message on there that pops up, and generally I've not seen anything negative. But I certainly won't go reading stuff to find out if there is anything negative on there.

"I know everyone has an opinion, that's life, but the great thing is 99.9 per cent of my fans are massively supportive, and that makes a huge difference to me."

Hamilton is obviously in desperate need of any positivity he can muster after what transpired in Monte Carlo, which is why he felt it incumbent on him to engage in some team bonding this week in Montreal ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself that weekend," said Hamilton on his woes in Monaco in which he received two drive-through penalties and was effectively involved in three crashes on race day. "It's a massively competitive season, with the gap between myself and Sebastian (Vettel) increasing more and more. There is not a lot I can do. I can't do any more than I'm doing already. But a lot of things need to fall into place, with pit stops, strategy and qualifying. So with the pressure building up, we just have to take a step back as a team, analyse where we've been and the mistakes we've made and approach things with a fresh head."