Lewis Hamilton not worried by F1 points gap to Nico Rosberg

The Briton's hopes of winning at the Red Bull Ring were effectively dashed on Saturday when he made two mistakes in qualifying - running wide at Turn 8 on his first run and then spinning under braking at Turn 2 on his second run.

And although he made a brilliant recovery to finish second in the race, Hamilton's failure to overhaul Rosberg means he slipped a further seven points back in the drivers' championship.

But with 11 races remaining - and double points on offer in the finale in Abu Dhabi - Hamilton says lessons learned from Austria will make him stronger.

"I'm happy that I've managed to recover," said Hamilton. "You are always learning lessons, but it's also good to remember the points I have lost by not finishing.

"I'm 29 points behind, even though I haven't finished as many races as I would have liked, and there is still a long way to go.

"There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend. I had a lot of pace. I didn't capitalise on it but I take that into the next race to make sure I do."

Although much was made about the time he lost in his two pitstops during the race compared to team-mate Nico Rosberg, Hamilton does not think they made a difference to the end result. Rosberg's cumulative pitlane time through the race was 1.643 seconds faster than Hamilton's.

"I had some problem with my left front wheel on one of them, and I think on the first one I was a little bit long [with car positioning]," he said.

"Overall I lost two seconds. It was valuable but it wouldn't have put me first."