Lewis Hamilton insists Ferrari's struggles at the Miami Grand Prix "won't define us".

Hamilton struggled for pace across the sprint weekend and was consistently a few tenths adrift of team-mate Charles Leclerc as he failed to finish any session in the top five.

He crossed the line seventh in the sprint race and finished in the same position in Sunday's race, though he was classified in sixth after Leclerc was handed a 20-second time penalty.

Ferrari had made set-up changes to Hamilton's car for qualifying, which saw him close the gap to Leclerc, but contact with Alpine's Franco Colapinto on the opening lap of the Grand Prix saw him struggle to mount a challenge.

"A challenging weekend for us. With the contact, I was pretty much stuck in no man's land and couldn't extract more from the car," Hamilton wrote on Instagram.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Lewis Hamilton (@lewishamilton)

"Tough to take, especially given all the hard work the team has put in, but this won't define us.

"It's how we keep going. We're taking what we can from these past few days and putting everything else behind us. We move forward."

Hamilton started the season off strongly in Australia and China, claiming his first podium finish with Ferrari in the latter.

However, he has since struggled to match that early success, and already trails drivers' championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 51 points after four races.