Lewis Hamilton was happy overall with his performance in qualifying in Bahrain, but admitted that Ferrari and Red Bull are currently "in another league" compared to Mercedes.
The Brackley squad headed into the Saturday evening session in damage limitation mode, having yet to come to grips with the chronic issue that are impacting the handling and speed of its 2022 Silver Arrow.
Although Hamilton and teammate George Russell navigated the first two segments of qualifying without any drama, the pair's inferior pace relative to its rivals precluded Mercedes from challenging for pole.
Hamilton's best flyer left the seven-time world champion P5 in the running order, 0.680s adrift from the Ferrari of poleman Charles Leclerc.
"I'm genuinely really happy with today," commented Hamilton at the end of the session.
"I think given where we’ve been the last few weeks, the struggles we’ve had with the car, it’s been a bit of a nightmare to drive."
Hamilton suggested that overnight improvements might help Mercedes regain a bit of its footing, but the Briton ruled out fighting for an outright win in Sunday's opening round at Sakhir.
"Those guys ahead of us are in another league so I'm generally happy with where we are. It's not the front row but we will make improvements and do the best we can tomorrow.
"Red Bull and Ferrari will be going away; we're not in the fight with those – they're a second ahead of us on race pace
"My battles are with the guys behind, most likely. I'll try to be as fast as I can and get ahead, but their performance is quite a bit ahead of ours."
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