Senna says his performances in F1 this year are worthy of scoring more points

The Williams driver only has 18 points after 10 races. While team-mate Pastor Maldonado is not far ahead on 29, the Venezuelan has run closer to the front in most races, and took victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Senna had another race to forget in Germany, where a first lap collision forced him back to the pits with a puncture. From there he had good pace for the rest of the afternoon, but there was no hope of recovering enough to score any points.

"I have been in very tough situations this year and still managed to have good races," Senna told AUTOSPORT. "I just feel that we deserve more points from those races.

"I'm happy with how the races have gone, and I've been making few mistakes. If we can continue like this I'm sure we can start scoring some very serious points, and that's the aim."

Senna admitted that his qualifying performances have let him down too many times in the first half of the campaign.

"There has been a shift from last year in terms of how qualifying and race performances went," he said. "Last year I struggled a lot in the races and this year I'm struggling in qualifying.

"It's tough, but the important thing is to make the most of it. I'm doing these qualifying sessions [on tracks in the first half of the year] for the first time [in a good car], but other people with more experience are doing them again.

"We have been doing a good job as a team to get in the right direction. We are still competitive and we have no reason to fear the rest of the year."