17/03/2019
NEWS STORY
Hard to believe, but for the fourth successive year, Lewis Hamilton has failed to convert pole position in Melbourne into a win. Indeed, on each occasion he has gone on to finish second.
This year, all was lost at the start, teammate Valtteri Bottas showing the Briton a clean pair of Pirellis long before the first corner.
While it was subsequently revealed that the floor on Hamilton's car was damaged, the Briton refused to make excuses.
"Ultimately I didn't do a good enough job," he admitted. "Once we got through the first corner, it was pretty much done and dusted, so it was about bringing the car home and bagging the points really.
"I had to pit a lot earlier, so I had a long, long stint, so I just drove super, super under par to try and make sure I had tyres left at the end of the race," he added.
Nonetheless, in a race which saw a Mercedes 1-2, and a Ferrari fail to make it to the podium, Sebastian Vettel's best lap over 2s off Valtteri Bottas' best time, Hamilton heads to Bahrain feeling fairly content.
"It was an incredible weekend for the team," he smiled, "we bagged some good points, got maximum, maximum points, so I can't really complain."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne, here.