Hamilton vows not to give up

The world champion is 32 points behind Jenson Button after five races, and the McLaren driver will start tomorrow's race in Monte Carlo from 16th position after crashing during qualifying.

Hamilton admitted his thoughts right now are not focused on the championship but rather on solving McLaren car's problems.

He said, however, that he is not ready to give up, but he concedes catching Button would be very hard.

"I've not really been thinking about that too much," he said about his title chances. "Jenson's up there and he is the one challenging. We're not challenging for the world championship. We're challenging to improve our car and working towards getting as many points as we can collectively.

"But we're a long way behind, and if he keeps up his consistency, then he will be very tough to catch.

"But we'll do the best job we can to get as many points as we can, and we'll see what the result is at the end. But we'll never give up."

"If you look at the results, I'm 32 points behind. Kimi found it hard to catch up 17 points a couple of years ago. So to catch up 32 points, including what he might get here, it's going to be very tough.

"But bear in mind we're improving all the time, and we'll do the best job we can."

Hamilton also admitted all his chances of fighting for victory in Monaco vanished following his qualifying mistake.

"What can I say? I made a mistake and I hit the wall. There's not much more I can say," Hamilton said. "I'm sorry for the team because they've done a great job this weekend. It looked like we had a shot at winning the race, but these things happen and we'll just have to work with it."

He added: "I don't think it's important to think of what was achievable because at the end of the day it happened. We just need to look forward to tomorrow. We have a tough race, and I'm just going to have to try and do the best I can.

"This track's known for not being able to overtake, but we have KERS, so hopefully it will help us."

The McLaren driver reckons his KERS could give him the chance to pass some rivals in tomorrow's race, but he says his main priority will be to bring the car home.

"Definitely. That's been the place where lots of people have overtaken in the past, so that will definitely be the aim to try and overtake as many people as possible there.

"But it's very bumpy down in the braking zone, so trying to overtake someone whilst overtaking is going to be tough.

"Honestly, I've not started this far back in Monaco, so it will be a new experience for me. I'll just try to stay out of trouble if I can and bring the car home in one piece."