'I just wasn't fast enough'

British media darling Lewis Hamilton admits he was too slow

Lewis Hamilton said he simply was not quick enough during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix after he struggled to fifth on the grid for Sunday's night race.

Hamilton was over 0.3s off his team-mate Nico Rosberg, who qualified second on the grid, and said he was to blame for the discrepancy.

"I just wasn't fast enough today," he explained. "Clearly the car was quicker than what I was able to get out of it and I will just do my best tomorrow."

It was the second race weekend in a row that Hamilton has taken the blame for a poor qualifying performance, but he when asked if anything had changed, he simply replied: "No".

Hamilton is hoping a podium is possible and believes the drivers between him and Rosberg – Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber – are beatable.

"Not a good day for me but that's life. We'll turn today's negative into a positive overnight and I'll be pushing as hard as I can in the race tomorrow. There are still people ahead of me that we can beat and our target will be to get on the podium, that would be amazing."