Better starts the priority for Mercedes F1 team, Hamilton says

Despite a front-row lock-out at Melbourne's Albert Park, Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg were beaten into the first corner by Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari.

Hamilton suffered wheelspin, while Rosberg claims he had a good start but that being on the dirty side of the grid may have a played a part.

However, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff revealed the practice starts on Saturday "weren't very good", so given what unfolded for the race the team will "need to analyse what could have been, and we will look into things".

Given the new single-clutch start procedure in place for this season, Hamilton maintains he had "no particular real issues".

"My initial phase was just the same as Nico, but the second part, where you release the clutch fully, I just had extra wheelspin and didn't recover from it," he said.

"It wasn't a major issue. It's always an ongoing change, even when my starts have been amazing.

"It's always moving, targets are always shifting so it is something for sure. We've been talking, and it's one of our priorities.

"The Ferraris got an incredibly good start, they were very, very strong, so we're going to try and figure out how we can do better."

Hamilton dropped to sixth coming out of Turn 1 last Sunday, and was seventh at the restart on lap 19 after the crash involving Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutierrez.

Despite Mercedes eventually recording another one-two, with Rosberg leading the way, Hamilton feels the battle between the team and Ferrari too close to call, with the latter's strategic error at the restart a deciding factor in Australia.

"I have a really good feeling about my pace," said Hamilton.

"As you saw all weekend I was ahead, but I do feel, I'm hoping that it's going to be a good battle.

"There are going to be races where we are further ahead and where we finish five or 10 seconds up the road.

"But then there are going to be races where we are wheel to wheel and races that, who knows, they might be ahead of us, more so than they were last year."