Hamilton 'satisfied but unlucky' six races in

Lewis Hamilton says he is satisfied with his performance through the first six races of the 2010 F1 season, although the Briton concedes that luck hasn't been on his side during the year to date.

While new McLaren team-mate Jenson Button has won twice, Hamilton has yet to take to the top step of the podium with a best finish of second in the Chinese Grand Prix.

A failure to score in Spain while running in a strong second place has also left the 2008 title winner sitting seventh in the championship standings - 19 points behind leaders Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

Speaking after a fifth place finish in Monaco at the weekend, Hamilton admitted that he would like more points on the board but said there was plenty of time to close the gap to the drivers ahead.

"I think you can look at it two ways," he reflected on his personal website when asked if he had expected more from the season so far. "You could say that we had some good opportunities in some of the early races and that we maybe didn't make the best of those chances. You could also say we've done a good job overall, got a great deal of performance out of the car and possibly exceeded the expectation of what the car was ultimately capable of.

"I think the reality lies somewhere between those two areas: maybe I should have scored more points, but I know that I've raced to the best of my ability on every single lap of every single race, and that I got the maximum out of the car, so I'm satisfied with my performance, even if I've been a bit unlucky.

"It would be nice to have more points, yes, but I don't think it's something we should be too concerned about right now - there are plenty more races, and we have lots of opportunities to close the gap. It's more important that we plan to break the stranglehold at the front than look back at what might have been.

"And that's exactly what this team has always done, and what we're doing now. We're confident that we know what needs to be done to get back to the front."

Admitting that McLaren's MP4-25 is better suited to quicker circuits on the calendar, Hamilton added that he was confident that upcoming developments on the car would bring the team closer to the pace of current pacesetters Red Bull.

"We've got some developments in the pipeline - they won't be immediate, but we think we know what we need to do to close the gap to the leaders," he said. "In any case, we're a lot more confident about what our pace will be like at tracks like Istanbul, Canada and Silverstone - we think our package will be a lot more competitive at those places, particularly in race pace, which has always been our strength.

"The important thing is to stay focused - one of the greatest strengths of the team is our ability to keep developing and refining our car during the season, and I'm confident that we're heading in the right direction."