• Malaysian Grand Prix

Hamilton to make set-up tweaks to help race pace

Lewis Hamilton on his performance in Australia: "I was disappointed and I don't feel I should have to disguise that" © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Race:
• Malaysian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton is confident set-up changes to his McLaren should make it more competitive over a race distance at this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Hamilton took pole position at the opening round in Australia, but dropped to third in the race after losing position to team-mate Jenson Button at the start and then dropping another place to Sebastian Vettel under the safety car. After the race Hamilton appeared downbeat and admitted he did not know why Button seemed to get more from his car and tyres over the 58-laps race.

Asked if it had dented his confidence, Hamilton was quoted by PA in Malaysia as saying: "We'll see this weekend won't we? I thought I performed quite well, although I definitely would have liked to have had my car in a slightly different position set-up wise in the race. But I'll alter that this weekend so it shouldn't be a problem."

He added that he would always be disappointed by losing positions from pole position and said his downbeat demeanour on the podium was just him being true to himself.

"I was disappointed and I don't feel I should have to disguise that. It's just that I worked massively hard over the winter, harder than I've ever worked, and the result of the race didn't go the way I wanted it to. But I'm only looking forwards. It's only one race and I still got 15 points. It's very early days, another 19 races to go."

Last season Hamilton admitted his personal life affected his on-track performance, but said his post-race mood in Australia was for completely different reasons.

"It wasn't a reminder of last year at all, it just wasn't a great start to the season," he added. "I started on pole, went backwards, and I'm not happy with going backwards. As I've said, there were several things that went wrong which were not fully in my control."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.