Lewis Hamilton believes that he could have beaten Sebastian Vettel's qualifying time, but conceded that pole sitter Charles Leclerc's blistering time was out of reach for Mercedes.
The Briton will start on the second row in third after missing out on second by just +0.028s, but admitted that a straight-line speed deficit is costing Mercedes compared to Ferrari and Leclerc's lap record of 1:27.866 could not have been bettered.
"Firstly, congratulations to Charles. He did an incredible job. Really, really happy for him. The first pole, it’s a dream that you set yourself when you are young, and it only comes once. He deserved it," commented the five-time world champion.
"I had a really good session in general. Yesterday was a real struggle, and all weekend we’ve seen incredible pace from the Ferraris. Honestly I didn’t know we would be as close as we were at the end, because they were pulling some serious speeds on the straights which is where we generally lost a lot of the time today, just in a straight line.
"Three-hundredths between myself and Sebastian, I definitely had it in that lap. I couldn’t have done the same time as what Charles has done," he conceded.
Hamilton said he was excited by how close it was between the two leading teams and is looking forward to a tough battle on Sunday.
"I’m just excited, it was a close battle, and that’s really how it should be," he added. "The excitement of being on the edge of having it or not having it is what makes it exciting.
"I’m hopeful that car is in a better position. This is generally a weak circuit for me, so that’s why I’m a bit more upbeat. I lost three-tenths at least all day yesterday to Valtteri [Bottas], managed to turn that around in the weekend.
"The race here last year, I was quite strong. I had a gearbox penalty, but I’m in a better position now. It’s very, very hard this race. It’s very tough on tyres and it’s a physically challenging circuit. It is incredibly challenging for the cars as well, so I just hope that there’s some excitement tomorrow.
"We’ve got work to do, but tomorrow is when the points are handed out, so we’ll just focus and keep our head down, and try to maximise the strategy."
Bahrain GP: Qualifying Result
