Lewis Hamilton will bury himself in training this week in a bid to overcome his double disappointment at the start of the new Formula One campaign.

Two third-place finishes in Australia and Malaysia are not what Hamilton would have expected in starting from pole in both races.

But that is what transpired to leave the 27-year-old McLaren star trailing surprise championship leader Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari by five points at this early stage.

Hamilton knows that is not good enough.

“I should have 50 points, but I don’t,” he said.

“Yeah, we would love to have 20 points more, but at least we’ve had consistency and we’re there in the fight.”

Crucial to Hamilton this season is maintaining his physical fitness, even though he is clearly at his peak as he proved in the heat and humidity of Sunday’s race.

With a three-week gap to the next double-header in China and Bahrain on April 15 and 22, there will be no let-up from the Briton.

“I’ll be training hard,” said Hamilton.

“The race was quite easy physically, so I’ve obviously done quite a good job over the winter. Physically I’m not in bad shape.

“But you have to keep it up because a year in this sport is so long.

“Sometimes in previous years there have been breaks in my training, so I want to make sure I maintain my consistency.

“I trained last week all the way up to Friday, so I want to make sure I keep that up all the way through the rest of the year.”

PA r