Heidfeld left hoping for more after disappointing race in Valencia

The German driver finished a lap down after a poor start, having been unable to pass the Force India of Adrian Sutil.

Heidfeld conceded he wasn't expecting to finish behind a Force India or the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari.

"What cost us a little bit today was our starts," said Heidfeld. "I lost a position to Adrian (Sutil) and then had to fight hard not to lose more. I finished more or less where I had been for the majority of the race.

"I managed to overtake him once but then he used DRS to get past me and unfortunately I was not able to attack any harder to get by him. It's still another point gained for the team, but I did not expect to finish behind one Force India and one Toro Rosso."

Heidfeld also admitted he believes the ban on off-throttle diffusers to be introduced from the British Grand Prix will help his team.

"Overall this weekend, we pushed hard but it just has not been possible to get the pace out of the car that we wanted at this track," he said. "We will remain optimistic, though because Silverstone is a track with a lot of high speed corners, and our car performs well in these conditions.

"We will also see how the new regulations affect our car, but I think it will have a positive impact for our team."

Team-mate Vitaly Petrov was also disappointed with his day after finishing down in 15th position, the Russian surprised his tyres did not last as much as he expected.

"Of course I am disappointed with today's race," he said. "I was very surprised that the tyres did not last very well for us, as some of our competitors were able to do a two-stop race whereas we needed three.

"We know that our car's pace was not fantastic here and the race has strongly highlighted that we have work to do because we should finishing easily in the top ten."