Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes don't yet possess the race pace to win grands prix

Mercedes have admitted they still have work to do on the W04 after pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was beaten to the line by both Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen in the Chinese GP.

Ross Brawn highlighted the opening two stints as being where the race slipped out of Hamilton's grasp, but the Mercedes boss also remained upbeat about the challenge ahead. "We weren't quite quick enough," he acknowledged to Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz. "The soft tyre didn't work very well - probably worse than we thought. Then on the first set of primes, Lewis was complaining about a lot of understeer and that is when Fernando got away from us. We had a few problems in the middle of the race with a lot of rubber gathering up on the front wing, then when the rubber fell off, suddenly we had the balance back again and were able to put a squirt on towards the end. "So it was quite a messy race, but we are not that far away from the front on genuine merit. Now we just need to find that little bit extra." The Englishman added: "I think it is a good measure that we are disappointed with third. We hoped we could have made that extra step today, but third is good, another podium. Obviously we had a problem with Nico which we need to investigate, but we have made some progress for sure." Hamilton currently sits fourth in the Drivers' World Championship, twelve points behind leader Sebastian Vettel.