SEPANG, Malaysia, March 22, 2008 (AFP) - Lewis Hamilton is upbeat about his chances of winning Sunday´s Malaysian Grand Prix after a disappointing qualifying session saw him end up only fourth on the grid.

The 23-year-old Briton, who is leading the early-season drivers´ world championship after winning the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, said he believes he can still fight to win.

But he recognised that the two Ferraris, led by Brazilian Felipe Massa on pole, have recovered well after their embarrassing exit from last weekend´s race.

Defending world champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen is second on the grid and will share the front row with Massa.

And Hamilton was also surprised to find himself outpaced in qualifying by his McLaren Mercedes-Benz team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, who was third.

"I was a tenth off Heikki, but quite a long way off the Ferraris, so it will be interesting to see what their strategy is," said Hamilton, who was last year the most successful rookie in the history of Formula One, missing the championship by just one point in the final race.

"Warming up your tyres and brakes all comes into the equation, and I´m sure I didn´t get the best job done, so we´ve got to see where we can find some time," he added.

He said he did not think that difficulties he had on his first lap when he was trying to build up momentum caused him serious problems.

"I wouldn´t say it put me off my stride, but finding a gap was very, very tough," he said.

"I wouldn´t say we´re on the back foot, but for sure they´ve got a very quick car," he said. "But they did last year, and we took them at the first corner, so we´ve got to stay positive.

"We´ve got to get some good points and I think we can still do that."