Felipe Massa admits that he can't afford to drop more points as he seeks to secure the Formula 1 title.

Felipe Massa has admitted that Ferrari has 'no more excuses' and must improve its reliability if the Scuderia is to come out of the top of the battle for the 2008 Formula 1 title.

Massa looked set to secure his fourth win of the season at the Hungaroring after dominating the Hungarian Grand Prix, but saw his race end in disappointment when a blown engine just three laps from the chequered flag forced him out and handed the race victory to Heikki Kovalainen.

It also allowed Lewis Hamilton to extend his lead in the drivers' standings to five points, despite the Briton only managing to finish in fifth place following a puncture, and Massa admitted that Ferrari has to get rid of its reliability issues if it is to prevent the title going the way of its biggest rivals.

"We've worked hard to make the car competitive again and this is a good thing for the upcoming races," he said. "But we've got to resolve the remaining problems: we have to be as competitive as at Budapest, but we need to raise our reliability. We can't repeat certain mistakes: we don't have any more excuses."

Massa added that the only real plus point to the Hungarian weekend was that he didn't lose out too much to Hamilton in the standings, with the Brazilian just eight points behind the Briton heading to the next race of the year on the streets of Valencia.

"It was like a nightmare and I wanted to wake up, but I couldn't, because I was already awake!" he said. "It was an incredible disappointment. This sport can be really cruel.

"Looking at the standings at least I can stay calm because Lewis didn't win, but we can't throw away points like that. We lost ten, but the positive aspect is that we've demonstrated that we're strong. The team did some great work over the whole weekend in terms of strategy and eliminating the problems we had in England and Germany.

"In a certain way it was one of the best races I ever had in Formula 1, but it didn't end as the others - with a win. It was a shame, because I really think that me and the team deserved the success; we had a perfect race at a very important moment of the championship. Unfortunately we couldn't bring home the ten points we already had in our hands. It was really frustrating, but these things sometimes happen in motor sport."