SEPANG, Malaysia, March 23, 2008 (AFP) - Lewis Hamilton was hot, disappointed, but philosophical after seeing his early lead in the drivers world championship cut on Sunday when he finished only fifth in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old Briton, who had to battle through qualifying to finish up fourth before being sent back five places for allegedly blocking other drivers, suffered a slow pit stop in the race.

But instead of moaning about the fortunes of himself and the McLaren Mercedes-Benz team, he looked on the bright side after the two opening races of the year.

"Obviously I wanted to do better than that, but at the end of the day here I am, leading the championship, after the two opening races of the season," he said.

"It could have been a lot worse. Today, I got off to a very good start and I was happy with that - to jump from ninth to fifth on the first lap was pretty sweet.

"But then I got stuck behind Mark Webber and it was difficult. When you are in there behind someone it just doesn´t matter how much quicker you are.

"The aerodynamics get upset and it is difficult to pass. Also my water supply did not work properly, so I was very, very thirsty. The water did not run out, it just didn´t work well.

"So that meant I didn´t feel that great and I was feeling so thirsty! Then when I did get working, I had that bad pit stop and I think that ended my hopes of finishing on the podium.

"I pressed very, very hard for fourth, I really wanted that point, but it wasn´t to be but the great thing for me, and the team, was that I was able to drive ok without the water, and I feel good.

"The main thing now is that we have to do a much better job in qualifying."

His team chief operating officer Martin Whitmarsh promised as much after the race when he said: "We underperformed and we need to do better, we need to get our act together in Bahrain.

"We need to do a better job and carry that through into the European season when it starts as well.

"Looking back, we are on top of both championships and that is a good position to be in. Ferrari obviously under-performed in Melbourne and we did the same here."

The battling Hamilton also took some solace, even if it was painful personally, in seeing his McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen finish on the podium in third place.

"That proves what we can do and, as I have said, Heikki is going to be a real competitor to me in the team this year," he added.