Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari is “quite far ahead” in Bahrain, asserting the competitive order is “completely different” to Formula 1’s season opener in Australia.
Mercedes controlled the opening event in Australia – leading every session and taking a 1-2 in the race – but Ferrari finished top of the timesheets in both Friday practice sessions in Bahrain.
Hamilton trailed pacesetter Sebastian Vettel by six-tenths of a second, though both Vettel and Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto were quick to play down the team’s pace advantage.
“The Ferraris have been quick from the get-go and then they picked up a massive amount of pace so it’s completely different to what we’ve seen at the last race,” said Hamilton.
“We made some improvements going into FP2 – on my side particularly I’ve been struggling all weekend with the balance of the car, but what you do is keep your head down and just keep working.
“I’m sure we’ll analyse things tonight and come back a little stronger tomorrow, but at the moment the Ferraris are quite far ahead.”
Hamilton also denied that Mercedes had been masking its pace during pre-season testing, in the wake of its showing in Australia.
“We didn’t hold back in testing – it just so happened we improved the car for the last couple of days and the first race,” he stressed.
“I think the Ferraris were down for whatever reason, we’ve come here and made improvements to our car and now it looks like it’s the other way around.
“We literally just do our jobs to the best of our abilities.
“I think as we get to qualifying we’ll get a little bit closer, but it’s definitely going to be a tough battle.”
Mercedes team-mate and title leader Valtteri Bottas finished the second practice session in fourth position.
