Lewis Hamilton has conceded that he feared Mercedes’ performance was such that it could struggle to make the top 10 during Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying.
Mercedes had a low-key Friday, with Hamilton eighth and George Russell down in 13th spot, but made gains through Saturday.
Mercedes was never in the mix for the leading positions through qualifying but Hamilton secured seventh on the grid, behind the Red Bulls, Ferraris and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, while Russell was sixth.
“I thought today may be worse than it ended up being,” said Hamilton.
“We did some great work overnight and the car felt much better in FP3.
“Overall, Qualifying was OK. I thought we might struggle to get into Q3 yesterday, but we didn’t. We were in a fight.
“We don’t know if we have the same race pace that we showed last year but I’m hoping we can be in the fight amongst the group behind Red Bull. It’s really all going to depend on what our long-run pace is like.”
Hamilton went on to praise the gains made by Mercedes’ customer team Aston Martin.
“I am genuinely happy for Aston Martin,” he said. “It’s amazing to see their progress and the steps that they have taken.
“I am happy for Fernando as he’s been here way longer than me so it’s good to have him back in the mix! I’m sure we will have some good races.”
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