Hamilton welcomes runner-up spot

Hamilton, beaten to pole position by his Ferrari rival, had to settle for the runner-up spot after being unable to pose a real threat to Massa, who won the race by over five seconds after leading for the most part.

The win allowed Massa to move to within six points of Hamilton, who despite that increased his gap to second place by one point following the retirement of Kimi Raikkonen.

"I cannot complain with second place," said Hamilton, who had to fight health issues on Saturday.

"We have had quite a strong weekend. I have had a traumatic weekend. I had a few problems health wise but seemed to pull through.

"I have a great team behind me to help. We got some good points this weekend, so overall a solid weekend for us."

He added: "At the start obviously I was on the dirty side. I got a reasonably start but nowhere near as quick as Felipe. I had to hold my spot and Robert (Kubica) was pushing quite hard for a couple of corners. I was trying to keep up with Felipe, he was in front and it was pretty hard to overtake here.

"I thought I'd keep a certain gap but at the end he started to stretch it out. It was good to know we were a couple of laps heavier."

Hamilton said he felt fine during the race, although he admitted it was very hot inside the car.

"Physically I don't' think this track is that physical, just that it is hot," he said. "You don't have enough water in the car. It has been a hot weekend, wearing these big suits is like driving in a sauna, but I am happy with how we got through it."