Five-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari has pulled o꧅ff a “great turnaround” to dominate qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. 

Ferrari was🥂 mysteriously off the pace in Melbourne but dominated proceedings at the second round to lock-out the front row of the Bahr⛄ain 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 straight-line speed compared to its chief riva🦂l, with Hamilton backing up his comments by labelling Ferrari’s advantage as “significant”. 

“All weekend weꦚ’ve seen incredible pace from the Ferraris,” 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 pulling some serious speeds on the straights which is where we g൲enerally lost aꩵ lot of the time today, just in a straight line.

“I don’t really know where the performance is going, but a loཧt 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 no﷽t been a circuit that has particularly suited our car for whatever reason. But I think we got into quite a nice place t🧸oday, and as I said, I think the end of straight speed was where we lost a lot of time.

“Sector one we wer🏅e losing three-tenths or two-tenths or whatever, it’s just on straight line speed. That’s a significant amount.”

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

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

“Three-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 e🏅xciting. 

“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 dream that you set yourself when you are young, and it only comes once. 💦He deserved it.

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