Bahrain GP: Hamilton expects tough competition from Ferrari

Triple world champion overawed by Scuderia’s pace during practice

Mercedes driver and three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari have a very strong chance of winning the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Brit, who has won the race three times in the last four years, is wary of the threat Ferrari pose, especially after the Scuderia topped both practice sessions with both their cars running into reliability problems.

"It was very close, with Ferrari fastest. In race trim they seem a couple of tenths quicker, so I'm expecting a great battle on Sunday. We'll work as hard as we can to try to close that gap," said Hamilton, according to Sky Sports.

While Hamilton acknowledges Ferrari as his main rival at this year’s Formula One world championship, Sebastian Vettel believes that the battle for the top spot is not just between two teams, but three with Red Bull also flexing their muscles.

"I think [Red Bull] looked already a bit stronger earlier today. We had a bit of an issue and we were lucky to recover and get some laps at the end. Overall I think it was OK but we can improve so let's see what happens tomorrow,” said Vettel, who was left to rue an electronic failure which caused a complete shutdown of his car, although he returned to the track later.

"We had some sort of glitch — all of a sudden everything went dark. There was no lasting damage and I'm sure we can fix it. Nowadays cars are not just cars - there's technology and software so it seems like something went wrong there,” he said.

Meanwhile, Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who has been on the Bahrain podium eight times but has yet to win the race, echoed his teammate’s viewpoint and is expecting a tough battle between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

"There will be tricky conditions and it's hotter than in the past few years," he said. "There is a lot of work to be done to be ready, but it’s going to be intense,” he said.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, meanwhile, was quick to play down his team’s prospects of winning the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“It was a good day. I am not reading too much into the low-fuel stuff. At the moment it looks good but it does not make a whole lot of sense compared to a week ago. So we will be reserved with that," he said.