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Lewis Hamilton said he simply was not quick enough after struggling during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver, who had looked strong in practice, was unable to make it to Q3, complaining about the lack of grip from his tyres.

Hamilton will start tomorrow's race from 11th position.

"I wasn't fast enough," Hamilton told the BBC after qualifying. "I feel I got everything out of the car, I just really didn't have any more grip out of the tyres.

"Unfortunate but we can still have a good race tomorrow hopefully."

He added: "Basically my first run I got a lot of traffic so I wasn't able to do a lap. So then I came in early - went back out early - and traffic was very difficult out there but I had a clear lap, just wasn't able to get..."

The McLaren driver said his road car incident on Friday, when his car was impounded by the police, had nothing to do with his performance today.

"It was something you learn from and I don't think it has particularly affected today. I think the weather, I don't know if I got the right heat into the tyres or not, but Jenson is doing a good job at least."