Hamilton remains upbeat about title race

The McLaren driver looked set to finish in third place until a late puncture dropped him to fifth position, where he went on to finish.

The result allowed teammate Fernando Alonso to move five points behind Hamilton, while Ferrari driver Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, first and second today, are now 15 and 16 points adrift.

"It was a little bit unfortunate, but still, we did a good job, the team did a fantastic job all weekend," Hamilton told ITV after the race.

"We had the pace of the Ferraris, I think; when you're behind them, you lose a little bit of downforce, I think we were just matching them for the majority of the race.

"But yeah, really unfortunate. I saw some bits start flying off the tyre, and it blew. I was quite fortunate I didn't put it in the gravel, and I still got points."

He added: "I couldn't stop the car. That wheel was locked and I think the rear wheel was sort of coming up, so it was extremely tricky.

"Some people, when they have that, they break their front wing or they break their suspension, so I had to be careful but at the same time try to get back as soon as possible without losing too many places. So with that problem, I think it's a good job.

"I did think that the front wing would be broken and I don't know why (the team didn't change it), I think because it's too much time to change it. But, yeah, it made a huge difference and I had a huge understeer and I couldn't get around corners, so I couldn't challenge the BMW."

Despite the disappointment, Hamilton believes his championship hopes remain intact.

"It's just a little bit of a problem," he said. "You always have setbacks; we won the last race, and we still got five races to go. But I'm still leading with five points, so it's not over, don't worry."