Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton says Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix will be a case of “damage limitation” in his title defence as he prepares to line up from ninth on the grid.
Hamilton entered Saturday’s action facing a five-place grid penalty as a result of the gearbox change required following a hydraulic leak in the component.
Hamilton was off the pace through most of qualifying and wound up fourth, having run Soft tyres during Q2, meaning he will start the race on the yellow-banded compound.
As a result of his demotion, Hamilton will line up from ninth place of a grid headed by rival and championship leader Sebastian Vettel.
“Tomorrow is going to be one of the hardest races for us in some time,” said Hamilton.
“We've been trying to get ahead of the Ferraris, but it has been tough, they just had the pace all weekend.
“It wasn't the greatest of laps from my side and Ferrari had the edge as they often do in these hotter conditions.
“The goal for tomorrow is damage limitation. I've got the Soft tyre, so I should be able to go longer – it's going to be interesting to see, there's a couple of different strategies tomorrow.
“I'll try and eke out every last bit of power and strength from this car. I don't know what we are going to be able to achieve tomorrow, but I will give it everything I've got and hope that I can do something.”
Team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start from third place and accepted that Mercedes has to understand why its pole-setting pace from Australia could not be carried over to Bahrain.
“I agree that we were not having the pace this weekend that we’ve been expecting coming here but we also didn’t have anything new since Melbourne,” he said.
“It’s a very different circuit, very different kind of tarmac, different temperatures, everything so for sure we still need to understand completely why.
“For sure we are struggling a little bit with some overheating issues with the tyres. Obviously less so in the evening sessions but still, we have work to do.”
