Hamilton picking cliffhanger F1 season finale

LONDON, England (CNN) -- McLaren's Lewis Hamilton believes the race for the Formula One drivers' title will have another dramatic finale this season.

Last year saw Hamilton, then team-mate Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen all with a chance of grabbing the title at the season-ending race in Brazil before the Finn raced to victory.

At this season's halfway point Hamilton's win at the British Grand Prix sees him sharing the lead in the drivers' championship with Raikkonen and his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa. With 48 points, the trio are only two points ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica.

Hamilton told journalists during testing at the Hockenheim circuit that he expected this season's finale to be "a lot like last year."

"Last year it was just as close between the top three drivers, and there was one point separating us at the end," he told the British Press Association.

"So I can only assume it will be at the last race again. I hope it's not, but..."

Hamilton rued his misfortune in Montreal -- where he crashed into Raikkonen -- and which led to a 10-place penalty at Magny-Cours.

"Somehow I've been very strong on the most challenging races this year," Hamilton said. "But even if you look at Montreal, we were blindingly quick there and it is just a shame we didn't win.

"We clearly had the quicker car. If I hadn't crashed in Montreal then we would have won the race," the Briton told AFP.

Meanwhile, Raikkonen told Britain's ITV.com that he was not concerned by the pace Hamilton's McLaren was now showing.

"For sure McLaren will be fast here [Hockenheim], but I think we have a good package too. We haven't lost any speed -- we just need a good clean weekend," the Finn said.

"I haven't seen what McLaren are doing or even put any effort into that; we have our own things to look at and that's much more important.

"It's too early to say where we are against the others "But the feeling in the car is pretty good, which is always a nice sign."