Lewis Hamilton explained why he lacked two-tenths of a second on his teammate George Russell during the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying session.
Mercedes didn't look particularly strong in terms of their one-lap pace throughout the pre-season testing and the first practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit.
However, the team unleashed some real pace during the FP2 session when Lewis Hamilton took P1 and his teammate George Russell took P2.
It seemed like Silver Arrows might become a threat to teams like Red Bull or Ferarri, and they did. Well, at least George Russell did, who finished in P3 and separated the two Ferrari drivers in P2 and P4.
Lewis Hamilton looked as though he was suddenly struggling with his car, barely making it out of both Q1 and Q2. In the end, the seven-time World Champion took P9, which means he will start the race six positions down on his teammate.
The two Mercedes drivers were the most equally matched teammates on the grid in 2023, so why is there such a gap all of a sudden? Lewis Hamilton said after the race:
"Yesterday, George [Russell] and I were identical car set-ups, and the car was feeling great, and then we veered off."
Hamilton suggested he decided to give up some of the one-lap performance in hopes of improving the race pace in which Silver Arrows didn't look the strongest.
"He went one way and I went the other. You could say the one I was on was not good on a single lap. I hope that it's good in the race. I wasn't comfortable with my race pace and so I changed the car to hopefully make the race pace better."
Even if the 39-year-old does result in a better car for the race pace, he still has to pass five drivers to catch up with his teammate. Can he do it? We have to wait and see. For now, he added:
"There's a lot of degradation with the rears, and race pace is really everything here. Obviously, position counts as well."
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