Hamilton puts his neck on the line

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Lewis Hamilton declared himself satisfied with second place at the European Grand Prix after revealing he nearly did not start the race.

The Englishman explained he was close to pulling out of the event after suffering a spasm in his neck, compounding flu-like symptoms.

But the McLaren ace still had the determination to take home eight points and stretch his lead in the world championship to six points over race winner, Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

"I've had a pretty miserable weekend, really," said Hamilton.

"I had the flu when I arrived I had pretty hard fevers pretty much every day and low energy. I also had quite a big problem with a spasm in my neck, which kind of nearly did lead to me not racing this weekend.

"Fortunately, I've got a great doctor who was with me the whole way through it. It was so bad that I was struggling to basically stand up and so I had to have injections in my neck and take plenty of painkillers.

"So, I cannot complain with second place."

Behind the top two, Robert Kubica returned to the podium for the first time since winning the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

Starting from third, the BMW Sauber man demonstrated his skill at a venue similar to Montreal in its flat-out straights and hard-breaking zones.

But he bemoaned a car that finished almost 40 seconds behind the winner.

"I think the key point of this weekend was qualifying, managing to put my car in third position. It turned out that we had even more fuel than the top two cars, so it was quite a good achievement.

"But we have to be realistic and I think the true pace of our car is more similar to the race than in qualifying.

"We struggled a bit more than Ferrari and McLaren on the long stints. As soon as the tires get a bit used, then the car starts sliding too much and you cannot do anything."

While the top three celebrated, Fernando Alonso, Spain's idol and the reason for the European Grand Prix moving to Valencia, cut a disconsolate figure.

The Renault driver could only qualify 12th and then was struck from the rear by the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima on lap one, forcing him into retirement and deflating the 100,000 crowd.

He said: "After qualifying, I knew that my weekend was going to be difficult. At the start I was touched by Nakajima and I lost my rear wing. My mechanics did everything to try and allow me to continue, but my race was already compromised.

"I am extremely disappointed because I was hoping to have a special race in my second home grand prix and for the supporters who came here this weekend to support me."