Lewis Hamilton has lashed out at McLaren for not deciding to retire his car after he fell a lap down in the Turkish Grand Prix.
The move would have saved his engine and gearbox from what Hamilton labeled as "a waste of time".
Having entered the race in the third row, Hamilton got off to a good start as he overtook Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel in the second row aided by his KERS mechanism, pulling alongside Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello on the outside line on turn one.
However, the reigning F1 champion clipped the front end of Webber's car with his rear tyre, effective puncturing it and damaging his car.
Hamilton then had to complete the remaining 59 laps with a heavy fuel load and a less-than-effective vehicle as he struggle to finish the race. He finished dead last at the chequered flag, cursing that it would have better parking his car in the garage.
"My race was effectively over at turn one," lamented the 24-year-old. "I had an okay start and quite a good launch down to turn one, and then I was braking and all-of-a-sudden I felt a tap from the rear and I went straight on. That left me with a flat tyre and damaged the rear floor, and after that I was out there just really driving on ice."
"There was nothing I could do; I was pushing and pushing, but it was a waste of time - I was down by 70 or 80 seconds. I suggested to the team that we save the engine and gearbox for hopefully a better race in the future - because there's a lot more potential ahead of us than we'd anticipated before this weekend - and we just used it all."
The British driver, however, had the consolation of knowing that McLaren had vastly improved the aerodynamics of his MP4-24, and said that he fancies a return to the podium real soon.
"The team have done a fantastic job over the last few weeks," underlined the nine-time grand prix-winner. "Literally I had a damaged car - the rear floor was destroyed on the right side, so it wasn't really working correctly and I wasn't able to experience the updates I had. At least we were competitive this weekend, though, we'll move on and I'm already looking forward to the next race."
"The best thing about this weekend was that our updates were successful. It's put us on the right road because, before, we were almost up to a dead end. With more updates coming, I hope within the next three or four races we [will be] competing for wins. I honestly think we can do that."
Despite not having the same set of upgrades as his teammate, Heikki Kovalainen made a strong start as well and was third in the opening stages of the race, holding back the slew of faster cars of Jenson Button, Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen behind him.
Dropping back in the pit-stops, however, the inferior pace of the Finn's McLaren - with just the 17th-fastest lap time to his name out of the 20 starters - soon began to tell as the man from Suomussalmi slipped behind his pursuers and increasingly into the clutches of the next baying pack behind. Ultimately crossing the finish line eighth, he did so closely tracked by Timo Glock, Nick Heidfeld, Giancarlo Fisichella and Kazuki Nakajima - narrowly fending his challengers off to grab the final marker, his first since Shanghai five races ago.
"If you'd told me on Friday that I would score points, I wouldn't have believed it," the 27-year-old confessed afterwards of a determinedly defensive drive to secure a well-deserved point. "This weekend has been difficult - it's been hard to get the tyres working and to find grip, but we kept pushing throughout every session and things started to turn around. Qualifying went well, and our KERS hybrid helped me to move from sixth to third at the start."
"From that point on, it was all about defending; I pushed the whole time, and it was a hard way to earn points but we can be satisfied about it. KERS made my race, no doubt about it, and I'm now really looking forward to the Hungarian Grand Prix, when I'll get my hands on the full aero upgrade package for the first time. It's good for the whole team that we now seem to be moving forwards again."
That notwithstanding, McLaren is being caught for sixth position in the constructors' title standings by a similarly resurgent Renault, who have closed to within just a single point courtesy of Fernando Alonso's seventh place in Germany. The multiple world championship-winning, Woking-based outfit's team principal Martin Whitmarsh knows that the squad needs to start reaping the on-track rewards of its improved performance as soon as possible.
"Lewis and Heikki both made great starts, assisted by the KERS hybrid," the Englishman reflected. "In fact, Lewis could have taken the lead at the first corner if he hadn't been hit by Mark, with the collision resulting in a puncture. That was a great shame, because his car was competitive here and I'm therefore sure he would have been able to score well with it."
"More frustratingly still, after having to make an unscheduled pit-stop as a result of that puncture, he emerged in the worst possible track position - at the front of the field. He therefore had to observe the blue flags and allow all the front-runners past, causing him to lose further time."
"Heikki showed great spirit throughout the weekend, performing consistently well despite not having access to all the aero upgrades enjoyed by Lewis, and ending up with a solid eighth-place finish and a useful world championship point. Now, though, we're already looking forward to going to Budapest, where both our drivers will have the aero upgrades and we ought therefore to be able to put in a competitive showing with both cars."
"The first few hundred metres looked promising when Lewis put his nose in front for a fraction of a second after starting from fifth place," added Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug. "He ran wide after being hit before the corner and got a puncture. Heikki showed a solid performance with the old-spec underfloor and brought home a point at least. We have to further improve - but this was a good first step."
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