Penalty proved costly - Hamilton - Sport in brief

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Having qualified fourth, Hamilton was demoted five places for impeding Nick Heidfeld at the end of the qualifying session, but he made those places up off the line before a jammed wheel nut scuppered his podium opportunity.

"I did the best job I could," Hamilton said. "I got a really good start and was pretty happy to jump five places from ninth to fifth."

He added: "I was pushing Mark (Webber) for a long time but being behind someone, no matter how quick you are, it's really difficult to get past.

"We were in a good position for a shot at third at least but then I had the problem in my first stop, which cost me a lot of time.

"I pushed very hard to get fourth, I really wanted that point and believed we could get it, but Jarno did a great job.

"Without the penalty, I believe we could have finished second but this is racing, those are the rules. We have to forward to the next race, we're still leading."

McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh agreed the problems in the pits denied Hamilton a much better result.

"It did cost him a podium place definitely," Whitmarsh said. "Our belief is there was a problem with the wheel nut locking system. The wheel nut wouldn't come off the mechanism.

"The guy on the gun did a fantastic job, he had to switch to a different gun and that sheared the pins to get the nut off."