McLaren duo says team must improve

Championship leader Hamilton finished in fourth position, but over 26 seconds behind race winner Fernando Alonso, with Button three seconds behind in fifth.

Hamilton admitted there wasn't more he could have done, and is aware that McLaren is not quick enough at the moment.

"I did everything I could at the start, because I knew that that was the place where I could really make up some ground," said Hamilton.

"Unfortunately, the guys in front were phenomenally quick, but I still managed to make up a couple of places.

"It was a very tough race today - the car didn't feel fantastic and the Ferraris and Red Bulls were very fast. We hoped the gap would be closer in the race than it was in qualifying, and it was - but, even so, we've got to make up some pace on our main rivals.

"We need to go back and figure out where we can improve, and pick it up again very quickly. Today, we did everything we could do - now we just have to work harder than ever to get ahead of the cars in front."

Button echoed his team-mate's thoughts about McLaren's pace, feeling he has extracted the maximum from its car today.

"My start was pretty good, I got away fantastically well off the line - but we got to Turn One, and Sebastian [Vettel], who was fighting the Ferraris, braked pretty early, and I nearly went into the back of him," said Button.

"I had to take avoiding action and go wide at Turn One - the thing is, I hit the brakes, and soon as you do that in Turn One, you lose a lot of time. So I lost three places, but thankfully I got one of those back pretty quickly.

"In the first stint, I looked after the tyres pretty well. I was at the back of the group, and it was a strategy that we'd planned before the race. After my stop, my pace relative to Lewis was very similar, and I settled in never less than two seconds behind him. But I couldn't go any quicker because I was losing downforce to the car in front.

"Lewis and I showed today that we got the maximum out of the car - it's just that the car isn't quite quick enough at the moment."