Kubica frustrated by run of bad luck

The Pole had qualified on the front row of the grid and was a clear challenger for a podium finish when a change of strategy forced by a safety car, a small mechanical issue and then a collision with Kazuki Nakajima wrecked his afternoon.

And after being forced to watch teammate Nick Heidfeld take second place behind Lewis Hamilton, Kubica has admitted that he takes little consolation from his own promising first weekend of the year.

"The weekend looked good, but I would be more happy if we could have extracted much more from this weekend," he said.

"It looks like every time I can achieve some good results something goes wrong, and here things went wrong. That is how it is."

Kubica did not think that the team's decision to switch him to a one-stop strategy played any part in his failure to do well - and thought an issue with his engine was the biggest problem.

"The team are doing the best for the team, so I hope it (the strategy) was right. But looking how many laps I had to do with option tyres, with a very heavy car, for sure it was not easy.

"This was not the biggest problem, though. The biggest problem was loss of power. The pace was very slow on heavy acceleration and I was losing a lot of laptime."

Despite BMW Sauber's promising start to the year, as they equalled their best result in F1, Kubica still thinks it will take some time to work out if they are strong enough to challenge McLaren and Ferrari.

"I think we are closer to them, but I will wait a couple of Grands Prix more to get a better vision," he said.

"Where we were losing out here was by lacking in top speed. At every speed trap we were quite a lot in the back and in Malaysia, with the long straights, we have to think about something to change."