Kovalainen says strategy cost him

The Renault driver was one of few drivers to stop only once, meaning he had to defend himself with a heavy car for most of the race.

Kovalainen went on to finish in eighth place for his sixth consecutive point-scoring result, but the Finn believes he could have done better with a different strategy.

"It felt like I drove half of the race with my mirrors today - and when I had a clear track, the car was too heavy to be able to do the laptimes we needed to make our strategy work," said Kovalainen.

"To be honest, with a different strategy, I think we could have achieved a better result today because the car was definitely more competitive than it looked.

"After doing the long runs on Friday, we thought our pace was enough to make the one-stop strategy work, but it just didn't work out today. But that's life - sometimes, you calculate that the risk is worth taking, and it doesn't pay off. I had a fantastic start, but after that, I was just defending all the way through.

"There was a lot of wheel-to-wheel action but personally, I think that kind of thing is more fun when you are attacking! The positive thing to take from the weekend is that the basic speed of the car was actually closer to the top cars than we showed today. That is a good reason to be optimistic for the last three races of the season."

Teammate Giancarlo Fisichella's race lasted less than a lap, the Italian retiring with a brakes problem.

Fisichella has not scored a point since in the last five races.

"There is not much to say after such a short race," he said. "We started from the pitlane, so we could use the car with a lower downforce set-up to try and make up positions. But when I came to turn five, I braked and the car just didn't slow down.

"It went straight on, I touched the barrier and broke the front-left suspension. I managed to get back to the pits, but there was nothing we could do to continue."