Lewis Hamilton relishing battles ahead

Manama : Three-time drivers world champion Lewis Hamilton says he relishes the prospect of another wheel-to-wheel scrap with Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg and the Ferrari team at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

The 31-year-old Briton, who finished second behind Rosberg at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, has been involved in previous thrilling and close battles with the German at the Bahrain International Circuit. And he fought back after a bad start in Australia to help Mercedes deliver a one-two at the opening race after a fight to catch and overhaul the Ferrari drivers, four-time champion Sebastian Vettel and the Finnish 2007 title-winner Kimi Raikkonen.

“I’m excited by the thought that there will be more races like Melbourne,” said Hamilton.

“We know there are going to be weekends where we are a few seconds up the road ahead of the Ferrari (team), races where it’s wheel to wheel and some races where they might be ahead.

“At the moment, we really don’t know what lies ahead and that makes it exciting. Bahrain has been very entertaining for the past two seasons so more of the same would be great for everyone.”

Vettel and Raikkonen made the most of slow starts by the two Mercedes men in Melbourne to take control of the race and lead for more than half of the distance before they were reeled in -– partly due to tyre strategy decisions -– and overhauled. This weekend, Ferrari expect to be stronger still and may have a good early opportunity to break the Mercedes grip on early-season victories.

Rosberg said: “We’ve stepped up our game once again this year, but Ferrari were a real threat all weekend in Melbourne and it’s clear that we’ve got a big battle on our
hands.

“I’ve had some great battles in Bahrain in the last two years, with Lewis and the Ferraris, so I’m expecting more of the same and looking forward to that...”