Lewis Hamilton cut a frustrated figure throughout the Chinese Grand Prix as he struggled to make his way through the pack following a disastrous qualifying session that left him down in 18th.
The seven-time world champion was punished for a mistake at the final hairpin during qualifying.
The error left Hamilton down in 18th and Mercedes opted to give him the soft tyre to start Sunday's race in the hope he would fly through the back of the pack and up into the points.
But his weekend went from bad to worse at the start as Yuki Tsunoda got past him and the Mercedes star was struggling to catch the cars in front.
Lewis Hamilton started the race in 18th
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He complained on lap two that he was 'making no ground on this tyre' before pitting for mediums shortly after.
Hamilton added: "That was the worst tyre, man."
But Hamilton's frustrations continued on the medium despite his improved position up the grid.
Having moved up to 14th, Hamilton was racing behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who has failed to finish higher than 13th in the four previous races this season.
Hamilton would have expected to be able to breeze past the Alpine, but he was growing frustrated as he struggled to close the gap.
"I can't even catch him, mate," he moaned.
"This car is so slow."
Hamilton eventually benefited from back-to-back virtual safety cars to drastically improve his race position and move into the points.
But it's still far from where the British racing superstar will want to be fighting and he called on Mercedes to get on top of their issues after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this season.
Lewis Hamilton fell behind Yuki Tsunoda at the start
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“We’ve got to fix it – that’s like three years in a row," he said.
“There are so many elements of this car which are better [then the 2023 car].
“It’s just we’re being hindered by the bouncing that we have, and the bouncing we have through [Turns] 6-7-8-9-10, which I think probably affected George and it’s something that they’ve not been able to fix.
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Lewis Hamilton does not seem happy with the current Mercedes car
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“We made some changes overnight and this morning the car felt so much better, I was regaining this confidence again. And then when we get to qualifying, it disappears again. But George was doing a great job, he’s a lot more comfortable in the car and I’m a bit similar to the last couple of years I would say.
“We’ve tried every set-up change. We can’t get rid of it. It’s difficult to explain it. We had some bouncing in Bahrain but nowhere near as intense as here. But that first sector is super high speed, a lot of yaw in the car, and a lot of lateral load, and the bouncing really offsets the car quite a bit.
“Imagine when the car goes up and down in the back, your balance shifts forwards and rearwards. If you’re doing that at 160, 170mph, correcting that each time… You know, the others, Max [Verstappen] is flat through 6-7-8. And the balance is just stable and that’s what we’re working towards.”