LEWIS Hamilton is remaining positive despite finishing well down the field in today s practice sessions ahead of the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. Tewin F1 racer Lewis was down in 16th position in session one and in the second run his time of 1 minute

LEWIS Hamilton is remaining positive despite finishing well down the field in today's practice sessions ahead of the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Tewin F1 racer Lewis was down in 16th position in session one and in the second run his time of 1 minute 27.813 second saw him finish in 18th spot.

World champion Hamilton said: "My day has not been too bad. It is great to be back.

"Obviously we are not as quick as we would love to be but we are working very hard and we got through quite a good programme and made some decent steps for us at least.

"I don't really know what everyone else is doing on the track but I am happy with what we have done today."

In the lead up to the 2009 opener in Melbourne, word coming out of the McLaren camp is that the MP4-24 car is not quite where it should be technically, and this has been demonstrated in today's practice session.

On his machine's struggles, 24-year-old Lewis added: "In general it is a good car. It is just general lack of grip everywhere pretty much.

"It is not particularly one area of the track, it is everywhere. We cannot carry the speeds through the corners that we would like.

"It is predominantly aero and we are working very hard.

"We have made some steps forward with it and for sure the gap to the others is nowhere near as big as it was back in Barcelona, but we have still got a long way to go.

"The guys back at the factory are working very hard to rectify that.

"There is no quick fix. It is going to take some time."

Time, however, is running out ahead of the Melbourne race on Sunday and it would be no surprise to see Herts speedster Hamilton start the grand prix well down the grid.