168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton will have “strong pace” at today’s F1 Bahrain Grand Prix despite s♎tarting from P9.

Although Mercedes teammate George Russell qualified in third, a different set-up to his W15 meant Hamilton h꧒ad a more difficult qualifyin𒐪g run.

Howe🎃ver, he emerged upbeat and c🦄ould now benefit from the race pace that his car has been optimised for.

♌Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director, said: "It's b🔥een much harder to get the lap-time out of the car [Friday] than [Thursday].

“We made some changes overnight to try and improve the long run and that has likely c🍰ost us some single lap pace.

"It was very encouraging for the team to see George put it in P3🔯 at the first race though.

“Lewis didn't have a clean run througꦇh the sessions and he'll no doubt be frustrated by that as he'd looked to be very quick [on Thursday].

“Nevertheless, we expect him to have strong pace in the race and he's no doubt re💜lieved to see that the W15 has way more potential than the two cars that came before it.

"We're looking forward to [Saturday]. It's a race where you can overtake, so good ౠrace♕ pace is really important.

“More than anything though, it will be interesting to see how the car performs and where everyone fallཧs out in terms of pace."

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen i▨s on pole position ahead of Ferrari’s🔯 Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes team pܫrincipal Toto Wolff reacted: "[Thursday] we looked slightly better than todaꦯy on our single-lap performance.

“We intentionally tried to set the ♕car up for the race though, so we hope we’re♋ in more of a sweet spot for the Grand Prix tomorrow.

"The set-up changes we made certainly contri♔buted to the drop in our♒ performance today.

“At the start of Qualifying, we wondered if we had sacrificed too much for tomorrow but in the end, it 💟wasn’t too bad.

“P3 is a good place to sta💜rt but we were still three tenths off pole position.

"Behind Verstappen, the gaps are so close with several other teams. Just a coup🃏le of tenths makes such a big difference.

“It’s𓃲 about the absolute tiny margins and if you find even small gains, then you are right in the g♕ame.

"We hope that tomorrow will be a little bit♑ better but we are still learning so mu🐼ch about this car."

Hamilton said:🌊ꦦ "I struggled throughout Qualifying as we have in the past couple of years.

"The car is feeling really great, but I just went a little bit in a direction to help my race pace🧸.

“I wasn’t feeling as comfortable with that [Thursday] so that was the focus. I’ve definitely sacrificed more single-lap pe🐽rformance than I hoped too but I hope that pays off tomorrow.

"It’s a lot of🌟 work to do to get past a lot of quic⛄k cars that are starting ahead of me, but I’m sure it’ll be fun.

“George’s position and the pace he showed today really highlights, and is a real testament, to the 💧team.

"It shows just how hard everyone has worked over the winter. It’s amazing for us to have a car thaꩲt we can fight with. It reignites the fire and the flame within us drivers. For me today, Bono and everyone else did a great job."

Russell added: "Everybody at the factory has done a great job to give Lewis and 🔴I a car ♑that we are much happier with.

“It’s a base that we can build up♕on. We’ve still got some catching up to do to be at the very front, but starting🐓 P3 for tomorrow’s race is a good place to be.

"It’s clear how tightꦫ it🅰 is between a number of teams, including ourselves, Ferrari, the McLarens, and Aston Martin.

“It is exciting knowing that if you put the whole lap together and find a tenth or two, that will add up to several positions ꩵon the grid.

"Since the test, the whole team has been working incredibly hard toꦜ fine-tune the set-up and make improvements.

"We’ve c🅺learly made a big step forward in our single lap pace. Hopefully we haven’t compromised our race pace, but we will see tomorrow. I think we’re likely to be in a close fight for the podium positions behind Verstappen."