Hamilton worried by Ferrari pace

(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton has conceded that Scuderia Ferrari are going to be hard to beat in this afternoon’s Bahrain Grand Prix after Sebastian Vettel qualified alongside pole-sitter Hamilton on the front row.

The four time world champion is currently in second place behind Hamilton in the championship and both he and team mate Kimi Raikkonen who will start the race from fourth place on the grid showed over the course of Practice that they are extremely quick matching Mercedes pace on the Soft compound tyre while being slightly faster than the Silver Arrows on the Medium compound.

Ferrari’s long run pace was also extremely good on Friday and Saturday morning and Hamilton is under no illusions that he will have it all his own way in today’s race.

Hamilton said that ‘they, Ferrari’ have great race pace and that they will be hard to beat tomorrow, but the double world champion is hopeful that starting the race from the clean side of the grid will give him an advantage and he also stated that the team are doing everything to ensure that their tyres can go as long into the race as possible.

Pirelli expect the race to be a two stop strategy although a three stop is not out of the question, it will all depend on how the race pans out.

Hamilton goes into today’s race leading the championship by 13 points from Sebastian Vettel and will be aiming to secure his third race win of the season.

© Ben Johnston 2015