Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Confident Hamilton has time in hand

Lewis Hamilton says he has more time in hand after being beaten by team-mate Nico Rosberg in second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

After Ferrari secured a one-two in the opening session, Mercedes hit back on the qualifying runs with Rosberg finishing a little over 0.1s quicker than Hamilton. However, Hamilton made a mistake in the middle sector and he says he knows he has pace in hand in qualifying trim while Mercedes has been focused on race pace.

"The crucial part was we know we have speed in a qualifying lap so it’s more the speed on the race runs, that’s an area we’re really trying to work on," Hamilton said. "The car has been feeling very good, I’m really happy with it.

"I think I locked up into Turn 8 so I lost a bit of time. There’s one other area which I need to try and work on to pick up some time but generally the middle sector was a little bit weak due to that. The car’s been really good, actually."

While Hamilton believes Mercedes is in a better position with its tyres than it was in Malaysia, he's also wary of a threat from Ferrari.

"I think they’re going to be very close. They look very good, from what I can see, in the long run."

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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.