Hamilton terms best ever season start ‘average’

MONACO: Lewis Hamilton has fired an ominous warning to his rivals by rating his best ever start to a Formula One season as “average”.

Hamilton’s win in Monaco on Sunday moved him to four victories from the first six rounds of his championship defence. Following two second places, it marks Hamilton’s greatest opening to a campaign in his 13-season career.

Carrying his fine form over from last year, the Mercedes star has now won 12 of the last 17 races. Remarkably, Sebastian Vettel, his closest rival for the past two seasons, has triumphed just once during that period. Hamilton is now 17 points clear of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, and an eye-watering 55 points ahead of Vettel in the championship standings. But Hamilton, who traditionally gets stronger as the season goes on, insists he is yet to find top gear.

“I definitely feel that it’s been quite an average performance from myself for the first six races,” he said. “I’ve arrived prepared — the best prepared I could be — but in terms of extracting the true performance from the car, I feel like I’ve struggled a little bit in these six races. I guess that’s kind of similar to other seasons, but without doubt I am going to improve.”