Five-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilto🉐n says Ferrari has pulle💝d off a “great turnaround” to dominate qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. 

Ferra🎀ri was mysteriously off the pace in Melbourne but dominated proceedings at the second round to lock-out the front row of the Bahrain grid and finish comfortably clear of the Mercedes duo headed by Hamilton in third. 

Following the session, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff immediately conceded his team is lacking stꦚraight-line speed compared to its chief rival, with Hamilton backing up his comments by labelling Ferrari’s advantage as “significant”. 

🔜“All weekend we’ve seen incredible pace from the Ferra♚ris,” Hamilton said. “A great turnaround by them. 

“Honestly I didn’t know we would be as close as we were at the end, because they were pulli✤ng some serious speeds on the straights which is where we generally lost a lot of the time today, just in a straight line.

“I don’t really kn♛ow where the performance is going, but a lot of it is on the straights. So somehow they’ve managed to find a lot more speed on the straights. 

“I think for us the car has felt OK, I just think over the years, it’s not been a circuit that has particularly suited our car for whatever reason. But I think we got into quite a nice place today, and as I said, I think the end of straight spee🥀d was where we🎀 lost a lot of time.

“Sector one we were losing three-tenths or two-tenths💃 or whatever, it’s just on straight line spee⛄d. That’s a significant amount.”

Hamilton said he was pleasantly surprised by the smaller gap to the Ferrari duo in qualifying, having ended up less than a tenth behind Se🌳bastian Vettel. 

“I think my session went relatively smoothly,” he explained. “I’ve got the extra ty꧟re tomorrow which I’m happy about. I’m just excited, it was a close battle, and that’s really how it s𒁃hould be. 

“T⛦hree-hundredths between myself and Sebastian, I definitely had it in that lap. The excitement of being on the edge of having it or not having it is what makes it excitꦅing. 

“I couldn’t have done the same time as what Charles has done. He did an incredible job and I’m really, really happy for him. The first pole, it’s a dr🦹eam that you set yourself when you are young, and🐽 it only comes once. He deserved it.

“We’ve got work to do, but tomorrow is when the points are handed out, so we’ll just focus and keep our head🥂 down, and try to maximise the strategy tomorrow.”