Hamilton was beaten by168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin on his way to finishing💝 as tཧhe lead Mercedes driver in fifth as F1 2023 got underway in Bahrain. 

The seven-time world champion ended up just behind Ferrari’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Carlos Sainz but trailed 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen’s race-winning Red Bull by a staggering 50 seco✱nd꧅s. 

After taking the cheq🐲uered flag, Hamilton admitted Mercedes have “serious work to do” to catch up to the fron▨trunners in an motivational radio message to his team. 

“Great work, I know we’re not where we wanna be but let’s keep pushing,” Hamilton said. “Serious work to do to close the gap but I believe i𓄧n you all.”

Hamilton earlier his race engineer Peter Bonnington: “How much we🌞re we off the Red Bulls?”

To which, ‘Bono’ replied: “Justꦗ uh… 51 secon🎉ds behind.”

After a disappointing qualifying on Saturday, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted his team had made a mistake in pushing on with the ಌsame car concept as last year. 

Hamilton finished two places ahead of teammate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:George Russell, wh🉐o appeared to have more pace than Hamilton in the early stages after initially dropping behind at the start. 

"Is he [Hamil🌊ton] managing or is he slow? Because I feel I have a bit more pace,” Russell asked over team radio during the first s🃏tint. 

Russell’s new race engineer Marcus Dudley confirmed Hamilton was “struggling” at that stage ꧑of the race.