By Andrew Benson BBC Sport at Silverstone

Hamilton had to be content with third place at the British Grand Prix

He denied it, but it looks as if the British Grand Prix opened up the first tiny cracks in the phenomenon that is Lewis Hamilton.

At his first pit stop at Silverstone on Sunday, the 22-year-old who monopolised the coverage of the weekend made what appeared to be his first mistake under pressure.

Hamilton must have known as he came into the pits that the race was not going to plan.

Despite running less fuel, the Englishman had failed to shake off Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso before his first pit stop.

With a lighter car, he should have been able to open up a gap, but they had both stuck resolutely to his tail. Hamilton had been holding them up, and he knew they were out on the track proving it.

Desperate to rejoin the race as soon as possible, he misinterpreted the movements of his pit crew and started to accelerate away while the fuel hose was still attached.

Hamilton being Hamilton, he reacted quickly enough to stop the car before doing any damage, but not before a point had been made.

"It was the anxiety to get back out there racing," according to McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh, "which is fairly normal and understandable."

The latter half of the season will be, relatively speaking, easier for Fernando and harder for Lewis Renault engineering director Pat Symonds

Hamilton tried to shrug it off. "I don't think it was my first mistake of the season," he said. "I've made other mistakes, you just haven't seen them."

It says a lot about the impression Hamilton has made this year that there should be any surprise about a rookie making that sort of mistake. But Hamilton, it has become abundantly clear, is no ordinary rookie.

The telling thing about this incident was not just that it was the first obvious error Hamilton has made in a race all year, but that it came in his least competitive showing since the Malaysian Grand Prix in March.

Although his stunning pole position lap hid the problem, Hamilton struggled throughout the Silverstone weekend - and more obviously than he has done at any race this year.

He was not happy with his car, and he was not a match for Alonso through the demanding, high-speed corners of Copse and Becketts, which - as Whitmarsh pointed out - are a pride thing for racing drivers.

Clearly the guy is human, after all.

Alonso (L) got the better of Hamilton at Silverstone

It is, of course, important to keep this in perspective. Hamilton is an incredible talent. No-one expected him to do what he has done this season, and already he is justifiably being mentioned in the same breath as F1's greats.

But the pressure is ramping up, and the challenges to him are intensifying.

Alonso has had a trying start to the season. Having just beaten Schumacher to the world championship in a marginally inferior car, he has understandably found it hard to deal with the fact that the rookie in the other McLaren is as fast as him.

On top of that, he has had problems adapting to the tyres used this season, after five years using very different ones that suited his driving style far better.

And he clearly has some "issues" with the way McLaren are working as a team.

Alonso and Hamilton get on fine as people, but on a professional level Alonso seemed to have developed something of a complex about Hamilton.

606 DEBATE The Ferrari car is very quick but if Alonso can get second why couldn't Hamilton? Hamilton_United 606: Have your say

Alonso has been "thinking too much about Lewis", a McLaren insider says. "If he just concentrated on himself and forgot about Lewis, he would be quicker. I don't think Lewis is better than Fernando - I think they are both massively good."

Alonso has made mistakes this season, which is unlike him, and that demonstrates the pressure he himself is under. But at Silverstone he provided a reminder of just how good he is by running Raikkonen in a faster car very close for victory.

Hamilton's position in the championship is down to his incredible talent, and a consistency remarkable in one so inexperienced.

But his lead would be at least half what it is had Alonso not finished seventh in both Canada and France after problems that were not his fault.

Those sort of problems have yet to hit Hamilton, and the law of averages says they surely must sooner or later.

I have a sense that the competition is going to go all the way through to the end of the season McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh

On top of that, Alonso seems to be getting around his problems with the car.

"Knowing Fernando's ability," says Pat Symonds, engineering director of Alonso's former team, Renault, "I didn't think there was another driver around who could challenge him, and that says a lot about Hamilton.

"It's only natural that if someone with ability has a problem, they will improve. That is happening. I think the latter half of the season will be, relatively speaking, easier for Fernando and harder for Lewis."

"In Canada, I was very, very quick all weekend," Alonso said after the British GP. "In Indianapolis, I was the quickest in the race. In Magny-Cours, I was third quickest after the Ferraris. So it has been for the last four or five races that I was quite happy with the car and quite quick all weekend.

"This one confirms again that I still learn, I have confidence and I have the speed to be there. Sometimes you can do it, sometimes you cannot. Of course we need a little bit more consistency and a better approach to the races from the team. It will be better."

Raikkonen's season is now back on track after two straight wins

And then there is Raikkonen.

The Finn started the season as favourite for the world title and, after a shaky start, he is beginning to show why.

Ferrari struggled at Monaco and in North America, but back-to-back wins in France and Britain have reignited his season, and without doubt Ferrari now have a faster car than McLaren.

Raikkonen may still be 18 points behind in the title chase, but if Ferrari carry on like this the gap will close quickly - as Hamilton pointed out, he would probably have been fourth at Silverstone had the other Ferrari driver, Felipe Massa, not stalled on the grid and had to fight his way through from the back.

"Ferrari had a stronger package here than us," Whitmarsh said, "so the onus is on us to change that. It's a few tenths either way, you'll see it swinging backwards and forwards, and I have a sense that the competition is going to go all the way through to the end of the season. It's great for Formula One."

It is extremely unlikely that Hamilton would ever have thought that winning the world title would be easy - this year or any year. But now he knows it for sure, and it will be fascinating to see how he responds.