Lewis Hamilton expects a closer fight with Ferrari this season and has downplayed the significance of not winning the opening race in Australia. Despite topping every practice session and taking pole in qualifying, Hamilton lost out team-mate Nico Rosberg after a poor start in Melbourne.The world champion finished second, but it could have been worse as Ferrari looked stronger during the race than in qualifying, but blew their chances of victory with a strategy error. Ferraris overall race pace, I was never really around them, but I thought they looked quite quick, said Hamilton.They were on a different tyre to me on a different strategy, so he looked quick at the end. Hopefully we are going to have more close races like that going forward, but I dont think Nico had trouble staying behind him on the medium tyres when he was on the supersofts.Australian GP driver ratingsIve a really good feeling about my pace, youve seen all weekend that I was ahead. But I am hoping it is going to be a good battle. There are going to be races where we are five to 10 seconds ahead and races where we will be wheel-to-wheel.Hamiltons thoughts were echoed by Sky Sports F1s Damon Hill who believes Ferrari could be a real threat in 2016.I think it will be more than a two driver fight for the title, I think Ferrari are close enough and a lot closer now than they were last year at this stage. If they get more horsepower, Red Bull could be a threat, Hill told Sky Sports News HQ. After slipping to sixth place on the first lap having started on pole, Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was happy with his performance It was the first race with new regulations limiting the drivers to just one clutch for the start. In the past they could drop one clutch at lights out to start the car moving, before gently feeding in a second, but this year drivers have just one paddle to control the cars clutch.Hamilton made a poor getaway from pole which saw him drop as low as seventh on the opening lap.I just got wheel spin, so no particular real issues, the Mercedes driver said.The Ferraris were very, very strong, my initial phase was the same as Nicos, but the second part where you release the clutch fully I had wheel spin and didnt recover from it.Conclusions from the Australian GPThat mistake cost Hamilton seven points in his fight with Rosberg, but he has downplayed the significance having won the title in 2014 despite not even finishing the first race.The longer the season they make it the less important one race becomes, he said.We have 20 races from here so there is a long, long way to go. I just look at 2014, I was 25 points down from here, so this is a blessing, seven points behind and I am really happy.Dont miss the F1 Report for all the reaction and analysis from the Australian GP. Natalie Pinkham is joined by David Brabham and former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley on Wednesday at 8:30pm on Sky Sports F1. Every race live in 2016 Sky Sports F1 brings you every race live in 2016. Fast and easy online upgrade - click here. Also See: Damage limitation for Hamilton Australian GP driver ratings Ronnie Lott Womens Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens embark on their first road trip of the season as they head out west to battle the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Solomon Thomas Jersey . Ancelotti says Ronaldo has recovered from a hamstring injury but "but he doesnt feel comfortable yet so we wont risk him." Madrid is third in the Spanish league, six points behind leader Barcelona, going into Saturdays game against Valladolid. http://www.49ersrookiestore.com/49ers-Jalen-Hurd-Jersey/ . -- Ty Montgomery had 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and fifth-ranked Stanford held on to beat No. Frank Gore 49ers Jersey . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Colin Kaepernick 49ers Jersey . The Islanders dealt Thomas Vanek to the Montreal Canadiens after less than a year on Long Island. Meanwhile, the Oilers dealt long-time sniper Ales hemsky to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday for a fifth-round pick in 2014 and a third-rounder in 2015. Had Pakistan moved their kit into the England dressing-room they could hardly have made themselves more at home at Edgbaston.Having shown England how to bowl in such conditions on the first day, they showed them how to bat in them on the second. From the moment Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and took the bold decision to field first, Pakistan have demonstrated a better understanding of the ground that Stuart Broad referred to as Englands Gabba. If they also provided local restaurant recommendations and the best tips on avoiding the traffic, it would be no surprise.Even in selection, they have shown the way for England. By dropping Shan Masood for Sami Aslam, they have shown decisive decision-making that makes Englands rather give a player one Test too many policy appear cautious and laboured. Continuity of selection is clearly a fine policy in general but, taken to extremes, it can become a burden. Several times in the last year or two, England have gone into Tests with players low in confidence and with their places hanging by a string. It is hard to think of a single occasion - not with Trott, not with Compton, not with Lyth and not, as yet, with James Vince - when it has worked.Aslam showed England how to bat in England. He left more deliveries than the whole of Englands top four combined. He left the sort of deliveries that dismissed Joe Root and Vince. He defended with the sort of conviction that might have saved Alex Hales, and he rotated the strike and accumulated in a way that might have alleviated the pressure on Vince. And yet Aslam is a 20-year-old playing his first Test outside Asia, and his first first-class game of the year.It was similar on the first day. Sohail Khan, also playing his third Test and his first outside Asia, provided a masterclass in bowling on the sort of slow, seaming wickets that are so prevalent in England. He made the batsmen play, didnt waste effort on too many short deliveries and he bowled the full length that ensured he optimised any lateral movement on offer.England had patches in which they bowled very well. Straight after lunch, James Anderson and Stuart Broad delivered tight spells which demanded respect from the Pakistan batsmen. At no stage did England allow the Pakistan run-rate to build. As a result, they have maintained a foot-hold in this match.But, by then, they had largely squandered the new ball. They had failed to make the Pakistan batsmen play at enough deliveries and allowed them to play themselves in. The insistence on giving the new ball to the labouring Broad, in particular, when Chris Woakes has emerged as Englands most dangerous seamer, increasingly looks inflexible and stubborn, while Steven Finn was rarely threatening on a pitch offering him little. By going at more than four an over Moeen Ali, too, struggled to hold down an end. And that really is a substantial part of his role in this side.That all left England reliant on Plan B. But if a team is going to bowl dry and wait for the batsmans mistake, they have to make sure they takee their chances.dddddddddddd Joe Roots dropped catch here was not easy, but nor was it the first slip chance they have put down this summer. Ben Stokes, with bat, ball and for his catching, is keenly missed.England could claim, with some justification, that these conditions do them few favours. They might, at a push, even claim such slow, low wickets have more similarity to those found in the UAE than those they might prefer to find at home. And it is true, there is none of the steep bounce that might exploit Pakistans potential frailties and this surface lacks the carry to exploit some of the edges that might have carried to the slips. Certainly, there has been very little home advantage exploited by England in this series.But England cant sulk like truculent teenagers - and for a large part of the day, Anderson did look very much as if he had been asked to tidy his bedroom before he was allowed on his skateboard - every time they are not gifted a green seamer. Theyre not going to find any green wickets in India or Bangladesh this winter. And theyre not going to find any in Australia the winter after. If they are going to be the best side in the world, they have to prove they can be potent in a variety of conditions.To be fair to Anderson, he admitted as much after play. As well as apologising to the umpires, he conceded that they could have bowled better and that their average batting had got us in this situation.Besides, the suspicion remains that conditions had not eased so much for batsmen from day one to day two. The suspicion remains that, while Englands batsmen pushed at balls they could have left, Pakistans waited for them and had the patience to build at under three an over. We will see for sure when Pakistan bowl for a second time, but the suspicion remains that their bowlers simply gained a little more from the surface than Englands and that their batsmen sold their wickets more dearly.Misbahs decision to bowl first has been hailed, in some quarters, as a masterstroke. But had anyone asked the Edgbaston groundsman ahead of the game, they would have heard him talk of the potential virtues of such a decision. They would have heard him suggest that the wickets here tend to be at their best for batting on day two and three and warn that, in the first few hours of the game, the bowlers would gain more assistance than at any other time. He also believes there will be little assistance for spinners and that the pitch is unlikely to deteriorate noticeably. It is, in short, a pretty typical contemporary Edgbaston surface.There has been much talk in recent years about the disproportionate value of home advantage in Test cricket. But, during this Edgbaston Test at least, Pakistan have shown the greater ability to adapt and the better technique to exploit such conditions. It has given them an outstanding opportunity to build a match-defining lead on day three. ' ' '