Lewis: I was unfortunate... but lucky too.

Lewis Hamilton was left to curse his bad luck when he suffered a puncture in the closing stages of the Turkish Grand Prix, although the championship leader accepts that he was still fortunate to recover to fifth position.

Only the second time he has been off the podium all season, Hamilton had looked on course to in fact make it 11 times on the rostrum throughout the majority of the race as he attempted to chase down the Ferraris ahead.

However, having gained the lead once both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen had pitted for a second time, Hamilton's right-front tyre delaminated suddenly at turn nine and almost sent him off into the gravel trap.

Although he recovered back to the pit lane, the Bridgetsone rubber flailing precariously around his front wing, Hamilton lost enough time to drop to fifth place, where he would remain despite some minor front-wing damage.

Indeed, while the Brit was disappointed with the end result after keeping pace with the Ferraris, who vaulted him at the start, Hamilton admits he was still lucky to at least make it to the finish line.

"A little bit unfortunate but still we did a good job, and the team was fantastic all weekend. We had the pace of the Ferraris, but when you are behind you lose a little bit of downforce we were just matching them for most of the race. I saw some bits fly off the tyre and then it just blew on braking into Turn Nine.

"It was lucky that I didn't put the car in the gravel and managed to control it back to the pits, as this meant that in the end I only lost two places. We still got some good points and I remain in the lead of the championship by five points, so it is not all bad."