F1: Lewis Hamilton admits Ferrari and Red Bull ‘are in another league’ after Bahrain GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton admitted Mercedes have no answer for the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari after dragging his car to fifth in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix

Ahead of a new era in F1 after a raft of rule changes, former front runners Mercedes have been struggling with their new car ahead of the new season and have appeared only third fastest throughout the weekend.

Just a tenth separated the top three drivers including pole sitter Charles Leclerc, who will start ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz.

Sergio Perez ensured the top two teams locked out the front two rows, with Hamilton best of the rest.

Despite being off the pace, Hamilton was not too downbeat in his post-qualifying assessment despite his lowly position. 

‘The guys ahead of us are in another league’, he told Sky Sports. ‘In general I’m happy where we are, it’s not the front row but we will make improvements as well as we can.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (right) qualified on pole position ahead of Max Verstappen (left)

‘These guys (Red Bull and Ferrari) will be going ahead, we are not in the fight with them, my battle is with the guys behind us. Their performance was quite a bit ahead of us.’   

Hamilton’s small reflection on positivity comes with Mercedes being six tenths off the pace, when previous running around the circuit in practice and in pre-season testing appeared to indicate Mercedes were much more adrift.

Mercedes though will be confident they have much to extract from the car and the seven-time world champion will hope improvements throughout the season can quickly bring them back into play.

Behind the Ferrari and Red Bull cars, Hamilton was best of the rest with a fifth place

‘I’m not saying I’m relieved, in general I’m really happy with the day compared to where we’ve been in the last two weeks,’ he added.’

‘It has been a bit of a nightmare to drive, but we kept working and I’m proud of everyone.’

Hamilton can also take solace from comfortably out-qualifying his new team-mate George Russell, who was only ninth and nearly a second off his British compatriot having made an error on turn one on his fastest lap.