Lewis Hamilton dejectedly admitted that the second practice for the Australian Grand Prix was one of the ‘worst’ he has had in a long time.

The seven-time champion has remained positive throughout the opening races of the season, despite finishing seventh in Bahrain and ninth in Saudi Arabia.

Mercedes had hopes for improved performance going into this weekend’s race in Melbourne, but Hamilton was left frustrated after he finished 18th in Friday’s second session.

The Brit had struggled with set-up changes made to the car throughout the day, after finishing ninth in the first session.

‘I obviously don’t feel great,’ Hamilton told Sky Sports. ‘We had one of the worst sessions I’ve probably had for a long time.

Lewis Hamilton bemoaned one of the ‘worst’ sessions he’s had in a long time after a difficult second practice session which he finished 18th out of the 19 cars that took part

Hamilton finished ninth in FP1 but after set-up issues he dropped down the order in second practice ahead of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix

Hamilton was one of a number of drivers to run wide during Friday’s practice sessions

‘P1 generally felt quite good, the car actually in P1, run one, felt the best it’s ever felt, and it just got worse and worse.

‘We made some big changes into P2 and it was tough.

‘After that session, I feel the least confident I’ve ever felt with this car but there are positives from that P1 run that we did.’

The Brit finished 1.5 seconds off the pace set by future Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc who was quickest during the second session.

Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell did not have the same problems, but he was still six tenths of a second off the leading Ferrari in sixth.

Leclerc was three tenths quicker than Max Verstappen, while the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso all finished ahead of the leading Mercedes in Russell.

After the session, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: ‘I think in the second session we went through a really dramatic set-up change with Lewis and that has massively backfired.

‘But this is why we are having these sessions – and on the other side it was a little bit better. But we are lacking performance over a single lap. Overall, it wasn’t a good day.

Hamilton was a massive 1.5 seconds off next season’s team-mate Charles Leclerc who topped the session for Ferrari

Hamilton locks up going into the corner as he and his team struggles to find a balance in his car

Hamilton had previously remained positive despite two difficult races to start the season

‘If I said I wasn’t frustrated, it would not be the truth. Certainly we are, because we’re trying so hard in all directions, but we don’t seem to have found that silver bullet yet which helps us to move in the right direction.

‘But we’ve got to keep trying – we’ve seen the performance of this car before and I don’t want to go back and say we’re just not good under these regulations, because we have everything we need to get on top of that. And we will.’