Hamilton explains how Ferrari ‘hit the sweet spot’ in Qualifying for Bahrain GP in Malaysia

Lewis Hamilton has praised Ferrari for finding “the sweet spot” in Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, with the Briton set to start on the front row alongside polesitter Max Verstappen.

This weekend marks F1’s first visit to the Sepang International Circuit since 2017, so there were plenty of unknowns heading into the session, especially as the three hours of practice had seen Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes all top the times.

That meant that it was all to play for in Qualifying, but Hamilton didn’t initially seem to be in the mix as he had finished behind Charles Leclerc in the preceding sessions, leaving him pleasantly surprised when his final lap in Q3 earned him P2 on the grid.

He had the slim advantage of having raced in Malaysia before and was elated to produce such a strong result on his return, as he explained: “I think this is the biggest crowd we’ve ever seen here, at least in my time of driving, so I love this energy. A big thank you to Malaysia for welcoming us.

“It's so hot here, I keep saying it, but that's made it a massive challenge for the tyres, for the car, for the mechanics in the garage, and I'm really, really thankful to my team.

“We've made so many changes through all these practice sessions and, because the cars are sliding, these tyres are overheating, it was really, really hard to find a good balance, and we made one last change going into Qualifying and I think we hit the sweet spot.

“To be able to close the gap to two or three tenths to Max, who's been so quick all weekend, is great and, yeah, I'm so, so grateful.”

Despite Ferrari’s successful efforts to eke out more performance as the weekend progressed, Hamilton noted that any improvements won’t necessarily help them in the Grand Prix, especially as tyre degradation is set to play a significant role.

“I'm much happier with where the car is, but tomorrow is a completely different ballgame,” he said. “Making these tyres last around this track... I mean, they're overheating from the get-go, so every little bit of wheelspin you have, every little snap you have, depending on the wind, makes a difference of how far you're going to go.

“But I like to think we've got a good balance. Max was really quick on his long runs, so I'll just try my best to hold on to it tomorrow.”

After setting the fastest time in FP2, his team mate Leclerc settled for P5 in Qualifying, but is set to gain a position once Isack Hadjar’s five-place grid penalty for taking a new engine is imposed.

While the Monegasque cut a more frustrated figure than Hamilton as balance issues impacted his lap times in Q3, he was optimistic that he would be able to challenge some of their frontrunning rivals in the race.

“I started losing some performance from Q2, particularly when I started pushing the car,” Leclerc said. “The rear started to struggle a little bit more and getting into Q3, that was too much so I was a little bit overbalanced for Q3.

“All in all, it hasn’t been a bad Qualifying. I think Lewis did a super lap and probably didn’t leave much on the table. On my side, it’s P4 tomorrow. It’s all to fight for with the guys in front. It should be an interesting race.

“We are relatively close to the guys in front. Mercedes seemed to be extremely strong yesterday and also this morning. Today in Qualifying [they were] maybe a bit less strong compared to what we expected, so I expect them to be back to where they normally are in the race. If so, it’s going to be difficult to beat them.”