"It's going to be a bloody close championship," predicts Hamilton
Thursday 13 December 2018 14:22, UK
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes are braced for "one of the hardest races for us in some time" in Sunday's Bahrain GP.
The Silver Arrows and Hamilton were emphatically beaten by Ferrari in qualifying on Saturday with Hamilton relegated to ninth place on the grid due to a gearbox penalty.
And Hamilton said the team were simply lacking pace compared with their Maranello rivals.
"Today wasn't the best of days and tomorrow is going to be one of the hardest races for us in some time," said the world champion.
"We've been trying to get ahead of the Ferraris, but it has been tough, they just had the pace all weekend."
Vettel on pole, Hamilton starts ninth
Although it was Valtteri Bottas, and not Hamilton, who proved the quicker of the Mercedes cars in Q3, the W09 was beaten to the front row by 0.166 seconds.
Hamilton, who stressed at the start of the weekend the battle at the front was closer than it appeared in Melbourne, reiterated Mercedes had a serious challenge on their hands.
"Ferrari have obviously done a great job," Hamilton told reporters. "Their engine is definitely not weaker than ours, they are looking very strong.
"We'll see how that is reliability-wise but car-wise they are on par with us and this weekend they are ahead of us.
"It may switch race to race but I can tell you it's going to be a bloody close championship. So we've got a lot of work to do."
The Sakhir circuit features several sections with corners that offer drivers the chance to take different lines while in wheel-to-wheel battle and is therefore one of the calendar's more overtaking-friendly circuits.
Hamilton, who will start on the slower soft tyres in anticipation of a long first stint, hopes he can make early gains but accepts progress will be tougher if and when he reaches the top five.
"I just hope that we're moving forwards," he said.
"I'm going to get a positive mental thinking and hopefully the set-up works well in the race. But it's definitely going to be tough.
"Hopefully I'll be able to get up to at least where Ricciardo is and overtaking from then on is going to be very tough."
No driver has yet finished on the Bahrain podium when starting outside the top four in the current engine era and Hamilton says he will simply do all he can to make tangible progress from the fourth row.
"If I can overtake I'll overtake, if I can't I can't," he added. "What will be will be and I'm just going to try and prepare the best I can."
Bottas starts from a more favourable third position but Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff conceded: "From pure pace tomorrow, I would say the two Ferraris are clearly the favourites."
