'It feels like a race car for once' - Lewis Hamilton ‘shocked’ by Bahrain practice pace

Lewis Hamilton has admitted Mercedes’ impressive pace in second F1 practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix was a “shock”.

Hamilton topped the second, more representative, practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell.

The seven-time world champion dominated the session, remaining at the top of the timesheets for the entirety of it.

While it did seem Red Bull and Max Verstappen enjoyed a clear advantage during the race simulations, Mercedes have made clear progress compared to last year.

Reflecting on the day’s running, Hamilton said he’s “much happier with the car” and the change in seating position is benefitting him already.

“I am much happier with the car this year,” Hamilton said. “The seating position is finally further rearwards.

“I've got a better feel for the car approaching the corners but there are other areas that have been fixed and improved. It feels like a race car for once.

“The last cars didn’t feel like that. It’s a really good platform for us to work on but we’ve just got to keep our heads down and keep on chasing.”

Like Russell, Hamilton doubts Mercedes will have the pace to challenge Verstappen for the win on Sunday, conceding there’s “a lot more work to do” on the race setup.

“This has been a crazy Friday [Thursday],” he added. “P1 was very, very windy this morning so it was a really difficult session for everyone.

“This track was so different compared to testing last week. It was feeling OK but we didn’t know where we stood on the C2 tyre and then in this session, we made some improvements over the session. 

“It’s a shock to see us where we are but we will take it for now, but we can't get ahead of ourselves.

“We need to keep our heads down, keep working on the setup, extract more. Our long run pace is nowhere near the Red Bulls and we were a lot closer - so a lot more work to do there.”