168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton will have “strong pace” at today’s F1 Bahrain Grand Prix despite startin💫g from P9.

Although Mercedes teammate George Russell qualified in third, a different set-up to 💃his W15 meant Hamilton had a more difficult qualifyingꦅ run.

However, he emerged upbeat and could n🧸ow benefit fro✨m the race pace that his car has been optimised for.

Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director, said: "It's been much harder to get the lap-time out of the car [Friday] than [T❀hursday].

“We made some changes overnight to try and improve the long run🐻 an꧅d that has likely cost us some single lap pace.

"It was very encouraging for the team to see Georꦓge put it in P3 🔴at the first race though.

“Lewis didn't have a clean run through the sessions and he'll no doubt be frustrated by that as he'd looked to be very 🦹quick [on Thursday].

“Nevertheless, we expect him to have strong ಞpace in the race and he's no doubt relieved to see that the W15 💟has way more potential than the two cars that came before it.

"ꦜWe're looking forward to [Saturday]. It's a race w✅here you can overtake, so good race pace is really important.

“More than a🐼ny✤thing though, it will be interesting to see how the car performs and where everyone falls out in terms of pace."

Red Bull’s Max Vဣerstappen is on pole position ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Lecl✃erc.

Mercedes 🐻team principal Toto Wolff reacted: "[Thursday] we looked slightly better than today on our single-lap performance.

“We intentionally tried to set the car up for🎶 the race though, so we hope we’re in more of🌄 a sweet spot for the Grand Prix tomorrow.

ღ"The set-up c🥃hanges we made certainly contributed to the drop in our performance today.

“At the start of Qualifying, we wondered if we had sacrificed too mu👍ch for tomorrowꦕ but in the end, it wasn’t too bad.

“P3 is a good p💃lace to sta😼rt but we were still three tenths off pole position.

"Behꦿind Verstappen, the gaps are so close with several other teams. Just a couple of tenths makes such a big difference.

“It’s about the absolute tiny margins 𝔉and if you find even smal🃏l gains, then you are right in the game.

"We hope that tomorrow will be a little bit better 💯but we are still learning so much about this ca🃏r."

Hamilton said: "I struggled throughout Qualifying as we have in the p🍨ast couple of years.

"The car is feel𓆏ing really great, but I just went a little bit in a direction to help my race pace.

“I wasn’t feeling as comfortable with that [Thursday] so that was the focus. I’ve definitely sacrific🍃ed more single-lap performance than I hoped too but I hope that pays off tomorrow.

"It’s a lot of work to do to get past a lot of quick c🗹ars that are starting ahead of me, but I’m sure it’ll be fun.

“George’s position and the pace he showed today really highlights, and is a real tes♚tament, to the team.

"It shows just how hard everyone has worked over the winter. It’s amazing for us to have a car that we can fight with. It reignites the fire and the flame within us drivers. For me today, Bono and everyone else didꦬ a great job."

Russell added: "Everybody at the factory has done a great job ▨to give Lewis and Iꦰ a car that we are much happier with.

“It’s a base that we can build upon. We’ve still got some catching up to do to be at the very front, but starting P3 for tomorrow’s race is a good pla𒉰ce to be.

"It’s clear how tight it is between a number of teams, including ourselves, Ferrari,ꦛ the McLarens, and Aston ౠMartin.

“It is exciting kꦅnowing that if you put the whole lap together and find a tenth or two, that will add up to several positions on the grid.

"Since the test, the whole team has been working incredibly hard to f📖ine-tune 💛the set-up and make improvements.

"We’ve clearly made a big step forward in our single lap pace. Hopefully we haven’t compromised our race pace, but we will see tomorrow. I think we’re likely to be in a close fig𒊎ht for the podium positions behind Verstappen."