Lewis Hamilton: "Bottas was quicker than me"

Lewis Hamilton has said that his new Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas simply outperformed him after the Finn took his first career pole position in Bahrain on Saturday.

Hamilton had topped the timesheets at the end of both Q1 and Q2, and he opened the final session with a 1:28.792 lap time, which put him half a tenth ahead of his team-mate at that point, but Bottas soon struck back with a 1:28.769, lifting him into the pole position spot. Hamilton was two-hundredths of a second down after this, and he could not find any more time to dethrone him.

After qualifying, Hamilton openly praised Bottas' efforts. "Firstly, a big congratulations to Valtteri," he said. "He's been working so hard, he's gelled so well with the team, and today he was just quicker than me, he did the better job, so hats off to him."

Of his own performance, the Briton added: "My first lap felt great, I looked up (at the television) and the time was so close, so I thought 'Wow, that was a great lap, he (Bottas) did a great job. But I was losing quite a bit of time through the first sector, it was generally my weaker point, and usually it's a stronger point for me, so I'll work on it for tomorrow.

"Valtteri found some great pace through the first sector; the second and third sectors ended up being quite good, but overall I was a little bit down. It was a great battle, that's how close quali should always be, it forces us to be on the limit. I'm generally happy with the job I did and it's great for the team to be one-two."

Mason Hawker