McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the Woking team let rivals Ferrari off the hook in Malaysia, failing to capitalise on another non-finish for Felipe Massa after problems of its own.

Even before the qualifying penalties that pushed Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton back to eighth and ninth on the grid, Ferrari appeared to have the upper hand at Sepang, but a double podium for the Silver Arrows could have counteracted the points the Prancing Horse acquired through Kimi Raikkonen's first win of the season. Instead, Kovalainen only recovered to third while Melbourne winner Hamilton had to make do with fifth after problems at his first pit-stop.

"We knew it would be quite a challenge to beat Ferrari but I think, ultimately, we underperformed," Whitmarsh confessed, revealing that Hamilton had also had problems finding the grip necessary to get his MP4-23 on the pace.

"He was certainly less comfortable with his car's balance on Saturday, but it was just one of those things. It had rained overnight, which cleaned the track, so that might have been a factor, and then there was a wind direction change. People don't always appreciate how fluctuating ambient conditions affect the way a car behaves, and sometimes that works in your favour, sometimes it doesn't.

"I feel that was what happened to Lewis. He felt very much at one with his car on Friday, but things just slipped away. We will look at that aspect of his weekend very closely and try to understand it before we go to Bahrain."

Dismissing the recent resurfacing at Sepang as another possible reason for the Briton failing to get the performance he wanted from his car, Whitmarsh was not as sympathetic towards the pit-stop problem that ultimately denied Hamilton a shot at the podium.

"The circuit certainly offered lower grip levels initially, but it evolved," he insisted, "The asphalt is darker than before and thus gets warmer, which creates a greater range of temperature variations, but I'm sure it didn't affect us adversely. Without his [pit-stop] problem, [Lewis'] fantastic first stint would have earned him a place on the podium.

"The wheel-nut locking mechanism failed, and it meant he spent much of his second stint behind Mark Webber's Red Bull - and overtaking is notoriously difficult at Sepang. When the gunman went to remove the nut, it wouldn't come off. In the end, he did a fantastic job because he switched to the spare gun and had to remove the pre-loaded wheel nut and hubcap. It appears to be a problem within the axle and the locking mechanism.

"It's something that hasn't happened before and it cost Lewis two things: ten seconds in the pits and vital track position."

Unable to replicate his stunning start to the 2007 season with a second straight podium finish, Hamilton came home in fifth, behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota. However, despite Raikkonen closing his own personal gap to the championship leader to three points - and Nick Heidfeld joining the Finn in a share of second spot - Hamilton actually increased his points lead, which now stands at three, rather than the two that split him from Heidfeld after Melbourne.