Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are seeking to dominate the British GP weekend, not simply in terms of the world championship but to make amends to the country following England's pitiful performance in the World Cup.

"It's very difficult for us to imagine how tough it was for the English footballers in the World Cup, the pressure on their shoulders," admitted Button in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. "We are in a very international sport and you do it first for yourself, then for your team and then for your country, whereas in World Cup football it's 100 per cent for the country. So I don't feel under pressure going into my home race. I feel very relaxed, and Lewis is the same.

"It'll be a lovely atmosphere," he continued. "We've both been there and had a crap result, yet you still get the support. For us it's a case of going there and looking forward to it, more than feeling under pressure."

However, on a more positive note, he adds: "Winning at home, you celebrate with your home crowd. I've never even been on the podium here, and I'm going to change that this year."

"Every year we go there it's a mega experience with the support you have," adds teammate Hamilton. "I really just hope it will be an incredible experience again, that the upgrades we will have on the car work, and we're able to demolish the field."

"I'm sure Jenson wants to win, but it doesn't mean he wants it more than me," he continues, "so we'll have to wait and see. Although I've won the race before, I'd love to win it again, but if he does a better job than me, so be it. But he has to do a better job than me.

"We'll race fairly, and the fastest guy will win, hopefully a one-two, which would be real special. Of course I want to be ahead every race, but this one isn't any more important than any other; if any one race is more important I'd suppose it would be the last one, if it decided the title.

"Clearly expectation is high, more than anywhere else because everyone is there wearing the flag for you. But this is not the deciding race of the year. If it was then you would feel the weight of the world. Instead, for me, rather than being dragged down, I just get this incredible boost of energy from everyone."

"It's a great grand prix," says Button, "the atmosphere is always electric. It should be a full house, the weather should be good, and the new layout is flowing and should work well. We should have a competitive car, so hopefully we'll have a great weekend. It'd be great for the British public to have two British drivers fighting for the win. Whether we'll be competitive with Red Bull I don't know, but if our updates work as well as expected then we should be competing with them up front.

"If I win I won't cross the line thinking 'I've beaten Lewis'," he adds. "That's what I'm here to do. I'd cross the line thinking 'I've won the British Grand Prix!'"

While Hamilton enjoyed back-to-back wins in Turkey and Canada, Button is the first to admit that in his last couple of races he has struggled, mainly due to poor qualifying

"The last few races have been frustrating in qualifying," he says. "In Canada I wasn't quick enough, basically, and in Valencia I made a mistake in the last corner. I was very happy with our race pace, but I've got to perform better in qualifying. I'm not putting pressure on myself but I know what I've got to do to help that situation. I need to improve that if I want to fight for the championship. When I came to McLaren that was my aim, and hopefully to win one eventually, but my view was that if that happened in the first year it would be amazing, and I certainly didn't expect to be fighting for the title after four races."