McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton believes he and his MP4-26 would have had the pace to challenge Sebastian Vettel for the win had it not been for the broken floor.
Hamilton made a poor start which allowed Vettel to gain a decent gap into turn one, though the Brit constantly pressured the Red Bull driver until an issue with the floor meant he had to nurse the car to the finish line.
“I think we were competitive enough today to compete for the win,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for the poor start, we could have been in the fight. So I think we should be excited.
“I don’t really know what happened with the floor, but it didn’t feel too bad to drive. After the race I had a look at it, and it looked quite badly damaged.
“I was just glad to be able to bring the car home, I was nursing it.”
The 26-year-old is looking forward to the Malaysian GP in two weeks time, a race he thinks he can win.
“I’m also looking forward to seeing what additional performance we can bring to the next race. The engineers know where there’s more performance to be gained, and we’ll get it to the track as soon as we can.
“I think we can challenge for the win at Sepang.”
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