Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton: ‘We definitely have a race’

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes will “definitely have a race” with Ferrari on its hands again after Friday practice for the Chinese Grand Prix.

The championship leader topped the times in both Friday sessions, with Kimi Raikkonen second quickest in the afternoon. However, Ferrari was able to match Mercedes’ pace over the long runs in FP2 - similar to its strong showing on Friday in Malaysia - and Hamilton says he sees four potential race winners at this stage.

”It was quite close between us and Ferrari, and Nico [Rosberg] is quite quick as well so I think we definitely have a race like I said we would,” Hamilton said.

“To be honest I don't really how long I went on the tyres but the prime didn't feel so good, but I have to go and analyse and see how we are compared to others. I didn't feel too bad on the option but I'll find out.”

And Hamilton says he hopes Mercedes has more power in hand than Ferrari, with team likely to turn down engines during Friday practice to look after the power units.

“I’m hoping that Mercedes power is better but we’ll see. I don’t really know where it is, I think it’s going to be close but I think we’ve got the power to stay ahead.”

By Chris Medland in Shanghai

Click here for Friday's gallery from the Chinese Grand Prix

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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.