LEWIS Hamilton admitted he blundered on the grid at today s Bahrain Grand Prix. After qualifying in third place on Saturday, 23-year-old Hamilton stalled his McLaren at the start of the race. He dropped down to tenth after his error and then collided into

LEWIS Hamilton admitted he blundered on the grid at today's Bahrain Grand Prix.

After qualifying in third place on Saturday, 23-year-old Hamilton stalled his McLaren at the start of the race.

He dropped down to tenth after his error and then collided into the back of former team-mate Fernando Alonso as he tried to move back through the field.

The Formula 1 star from Tewin eventually finished 13th after a disappointing race at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Hamilton apologised to his team afterwards for his poor showing around the desert track.

He said: "I am really disappointed and feel like I let the team down today as I always am the first to blame myself.

"The whole weekend has not been ideal, starting with the accident on Friday, but I will keep my chin up and bounce back at the next race."

Explaining what went wrong on the grid, Hamilton said: "I messed up at the start as I didn't hit the switch early enough and therefore had not engaged the correct engine setting, and the anti-stall kicked in.

"I lost a lot of places but things were still salvageable at that point.

"Then I had the incident with Fernando. I was behind him, and I moved to the right, and he moved to the right and that was it - a racing incident I guess."

Despite finishing out of the points and losing his grip on the World Championship lead, Hamilton still has faith in his McLaren car.

He said: "I am confident that we have the pace to be fighting at the front, so the confidence is still there.

"I have had such a good run in Formula 1 until now, and it was almost inevitable that at some point things would go wrong.

"However, there is a long way to go in the championship and I intend to win it."

The fourth round of the series takes place at Barcelona in Spain on April 27.