Hamilton praises team despite mistake

Hamilton led the race from pole position until his second pitstop, when one of his tyres was not ready in time, making the Briton lose valuable seconds.

After the pitstop, Hamilton emerged in second place behind Rubens Barrichello, who went on to win the race, 2.3 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver.

Hamilton was far from upset with his team, and instead praised its effort in the last races.

"We win or lose together, and they have had a tremendous effort to get us here so we could not at all take second place for granted, or be disappointed that we didn't get the win," said Hamilton.

"We have had extraordinary pace for us the last two/three races, and I still feel and believe there is a tremendous effort from everyone.

"These things happen, and this could only be the second time in all the races I've done. For all they have done they deserve a pat on the back.

"We need to catch these guys (Brawn) up as I believe they are quicker than us."

Hamilton, winner of the previous race in Hungary, closed the gap to Barrichello over the final laps, but was unable to beat the Brazilian.

"The first part of the race was very well controlled from my point of view, it was consistent," he said.

"In the second stint I was struggling on my tyres and to keep up the race Rubens had, especially in the high speed corners.That seemed to be where he was catching me.

"I kept pushing and the last stint on primes was a little better for me. I pushed and pushed, it was like a qualifying lap every lap, very close to the wall every time and really I can happily go home knowing I took it all."

Team-mate Heikki Kovalainen finished in fourth position as McLaren moved into fourth place in the standings.