Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes will be fighting for scraps behind Red Bull and Ferrari at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Hamilton qualified fifth in a session which felt like a changing of the guard in F1 after eight years of Mercedes being the benchmark.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc edged out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for pole as their teammates Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez locked out the second row, confirming the preseason belief those two teams are ahead of the rest coming into the new year.
Mercedes has downplayed its chances over the past few weeks and Saturday’s qualifying session proved it had not been bluffing, with Hamilton 0.6s down on Leclerc’s pole time, a significant margin over an F1 qualifying lap.
“I’m not saying I’m relieved, [but] I’m generally really happy today,” Hamilton told Sky Sports after qualifying, having struggled to get comfortable with his Mercedes over the three practice sessions this week and in testing last week.
Lewis Hamilton will start the Bahrain Grand…
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