Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he thought Mercedes would have performed better than they did in Bahrain after finishing seventh and over 50 seconds behind Max Verstappen in the season-opening race.
The 39-year-old is embarking on his final year with Mercedes with hopes of ending his long wait for another race win.
Early signs in free practice suggested Mercedes would have some pace in Bahrain this week, but that wasn't the case during qualifying when Hamilton struggled to keep up with those ahead of him.
It was a similar story in Saturday's race with Hamilton battling with the two McLaren drivers and Aston Martin inside the top 10.
Lewis Hamilton was disappointed at how far away Mercedes were
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He ended up close to a minute behind race winner Verstappen after complaining of a few issues during the Grand Prix.
Despite the setback, Hamilton was in high spirits after the race and had a smile on his face.
However, the seven-time world champion admitted to being surprised just how far away Mercedes ended up from Verstappen.
"I personally feel great, physically I feel great so winter training has worked," Hamilton told Sky Sports.
"We probably feel a bit of disappointment within the team, I'm not sure about everyone else.
"I was definitely hoping that we would be better this weekend then we were, but it was a tough race, it was very close with everybody and degradation is high with the car.
"There is plenty of areas we can improve. We were further back from the Red Bulls then we thought as well."
Hamilton is confident of better things to come for Mercedes heading into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix next week.
Lewis Hamilton complained of several issues during the race
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"I mean the car is reliable, but I think it was a struggle in the car today," he added.
"The platform, where I was given everything, but there wasn't a lot of performance there compared to some of the others.
"I think if I would have qualified better, I would be a good couple of places ahead because the last stint was good.
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Lewis Hamilton is optimistic better is to come for Mercedes
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"It was about discovery today, I found out a lot of things about the car to improve and I'm sure the team will."
George Russell fared slightly better than his Mercedes team-mate as he finished fifth.
But Ferrari were Red Bull's closest challengers with Carlos Sainz finished the best of the rest.
