Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton: Challenge to Mercedes is genuine

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes is facing a genuine threat at the Singapore Grand Prix after being beaten in FP2.

After Nico Rosberg topped the times in the opening practice session, it was Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat who was quickest in FP2, heading Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo. Hamilton was fourth quickest in a practice session which didn't feature a Mercedes-powered car in the top three for the first time this season and he insists the threat is a genuine one.

"The other guys are fast," Hamilton said. "No problems at all, they are just fast. This is always a race where people are closer and the gap is always closer. They are even closer this weekend and potentially even ahead.

"Definitely we have a genuine challenge from these guys. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens, it’s going to be interesting that’s for sure."

And Hamilton believes it is likely to be Mercedes' toughest fight for pole position so far this season on Saturday.

"It looks like that could be the case. Ferrari are very fast or equally as fast and Red Bull are quite competitive looking at the times. We will still be fighting.

"We are just doing what we are doing and not targeting anything specifically here. We are just pushing as hard as we can to be as fast as we can. The others are looking quite quick but tomorrow is another day."

REPORT: Kvyat heads Raikkonen in competitive FP2

2016 F1 driver line-ups so far

Click here for some of the most memorable crashes at Singapore

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.