Lewis Hamilton believes the set-up of his Ferrari has cost him points in the past few races and seen him outperformed by teammate Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton still lies third in the F1 Drivers’ Championship standings, and is just one point behind George Russell in second, but he has seen his title hopes slip away as Kimi Antonelli has taken complete control of the championship.

Mercedes star Antonelli will likely wrap up the title at the Mexican Grand Prix this weekend, with four races to spare, leaving Hamilton to fight for the scraps behind.

At last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, the seven-time world champion was out-qualified by Leclerc and then failed to match his teammate’s race pace as he finished fourth, with the Monegasque in second.

It was a similar story at the previous race in Singapore when Hamilton was beaten by Leclerc in qualifying Q3 and eventually came home sixth to Leclerc’s second.

He was also beaten by his fellow Ferrari driver in Azerbaijan and Spain, meaning he has failed to get the better of his teammate in four of the last five races, allowing Leclerc to climb to fifth in the drivers’ standings, now just eight points behind the Brit.

And Hamilton has now explained his recent struggles, which have come despite a promising upgrade to the car.

"I lost a lot of points in the last five races or so," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. "I think it has come from set-up, not perfect, the set-up. That’s something I really have to get on top of. That’s where I have lost out.

“Performance-wise I feel like I’ve been driving well and the last [race] stint [in Austin] was good. The first two stints there was nothing I could do about that.

"Definitely lots to take away. The team did a great job to bring an upgrade. Charles got a second place. We have got good performance. Hopefully when we go to Mexico, we can improve on where we have gone wrong on that set-up."

Ferrari lacked straight-line speed in Austin when compared to their rivals, although they still appear to hold an advantage when cornering.

And Hamilton pinpointed the car’s low-speed balance in the first two stints of the US Grand Prix as a major issue which ultimately put him out of the podium fight.

“I lost so much time. I couldn’t turn the car in the low-speed particularly – Turn 1, Turn 11, Turn 12, Turn 13, 14, 15,” he explained. “Massive understeer so the [other] cars pulled away when I was adjusting my settings

“By the time we got to the last stint, we got closer to the balance but we should have started with that balance at the beginning. Lots of learnings. The team did a great job with pit stops and strategy.”