Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton: Ferrari will be 'very hard to beat'

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Lewis Hamilton says it will be tough to beat Ferrari in the Bahrain Grand Prix despite starting from pole position.

While Hamilton took his fourth consecutive pole position - the first time he has done that in his F1 career - Ferrari looked extremely competitive on long runs in FP2. With Sebastian Vettel starting from second on the grid, Hamilton says he is expecting a major challenge to hold on to the lead in Sunday’s race having already been beaten by Vettel in Malaysia.

“We have gone over [Malaysia] tons of times already about what we have learnt, but it doesn’t get us away from the fact they are very quick this weekend and they are going to be very hard to beat tomorrow,” Hamilton said. “They have got great race pace, but hopefully with our positioning that does help and we will be taking all measures we can to make the tyres go as long as they do. I think we are in a good position. So, looking forward to the fight.

However, having taken his first ever pole position in Bahrain, Hamilton is delighted with the way his weekend has gone so far.

"I feel great, very happy. Coming into the weekend the target was to master this track, to get the car into an area I'd be comfortable with, and that generally is how the weekend has gone. I'm really grateful to have this beast under me, to be able to really attack the corners, whereas last year I wasn't comfortable with the car, so it's a great feeling."

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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.