Hamilton: I've only been average so far

Lewis Hamilton says he has only been average during the first races of the 2019 season, despite holding the lead in the world championship.

Hamilton leads Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas by 17 points in the world championship after the opening six Grands Prix of the year, taking four victories to Bottas' two.

"I definitely feel that it's been quite an average performance from myself, maybe above average, but generally quite average for the first six races," said Hamilton.

"I feel like I've got the best I could get. I've arrived prepared - the best prepared I could be - but in terms of extracting the true performance from the car, I feel like I've struggled a little bit in these six races."

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Despite having the edge over Bottas so far in the races, they are both even in qualifying, having out-qualified each other three times.

Monaco marked Hamilton's second pole position of the season, having achieved his only other one of 2019 at the season-opener in Melbourne.

"I guess that's kind of similar to other seasons but without doubt it's going to improve as the knowledge you gain over the season race by race, particularly with the tyres this year, where the window is even smaller," added the Briton.

"I do anticipate things will get better as it will be for all of us. I hope, at some stage, that I'm able to crack the issues that I've had and get back to the form that I have within me.

"Whether that's the next race or ten races from now, I can't really say but I am very, very focused on making sure I rectify any of those."