LEWIS HAMILTON IS worried that his McLaren team is falling behind its rivals in the Formula 1 world championship, following a poor Monaco Grand Prix.
Hamilton started the race third on the grid but could only finish fifth, while his team-mate Jenson Button retired after he crashed into Heikki Kovalainen.
The 27-year-old was happy enough with his qualifying performance, especially after he was promoted to third after Michael Schumacher’s penalty, but he made a poor getaway and lost places to both Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel during the pit-stops.
The race was won by Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
“The team have definitely got some work to do because we are falling behind race by race,” said Hamilton.
“The others are picking up serious pace. If we are not lucky then it will fall away from us too quickly.”
Hamilton now finds himself 13 points behind world championship leader Alonso, while Button is 31 points adrift of top spot.
“It was frustrating, it wasn’t the best result,” added Hamilton. “This is motor racing. I really dislike going backwards, but we still came away with some points.
“There are many races ahead of us and we still need to keep pushing.
“My start was one of the worst starts I’ve had in a long time. I don’t understand why it happens when two guys next to me and those behind us got perfect starts.
“I was fortunate not to get caught up in the crash. We do thousands of starts, it shouldn’t be a problem.
“Then after that I don’t know how long my pit stop was but I lost a lot of time. I wasn’t able to keep up with Alonso, and Sebastian got me through his pit stop. Then it is impossible to overtake.
“It’s not a great feeling but that’s the way it is. Where was the rain when I needed it?”
