\n<\/p>\n
It was a chaotic start to the season at Albert Park for a race that started wet, dried up and ended wet again, and featured three safety cars, an aborted start and a series of crashes.<\/p>\n
Hamilton, who had qualified eighth, said: “I’m grateful I got through it, came out of it with a little bit of something, at least one point.<\/p>\n
“Obviously I didn’t go off or spin. Lacking pace, for sure, but I do believe the car has more performance than we were able to extract this weekend.”<\/p>\n
He said that the team left it too late to stop for treaded tyres when the rain came with 13 laps to go – he stopped three laps after Norris and one after Verstappen.<\/p>\n
Hamilton said: “The last sector (of the lap), everyone was going off but I was managing to hold on, so I was just passing people, and once we got to the start line, it was dry.<\/p>\n
“So I was like: ‘This is fine for me, I’ve just got to hold this out, I’ve only got a few laps to go.’<\/p>\n
“But then it pelted down just in the last two laps or something, it was coming down, and that’s the moment we probably should have come in.<\/p>\n
“In that moment, I was like, ‘oh my God, I’m third’. I was leading for a second. But I mean, yeah, I don’t know if we have anywhere near the pace as the McLarens had today. But I do think in the actual car, there is a lot more performance, I just don’t think we unlocked it this week.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n