Hamilton starts second in Malaysia: I can be satisfied, I will give my best

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton said today that the team needs to concentrate on its race, but that it would be great if he had good enough pace to keep up with Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the upcoming Formula One race for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

In his final attempt in today's qualifying session at the Sepang track, Hamilton drove, as he said, "probably the best lap of the year" and took second place behind Verstappen.

It will be the first time since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix that Verstappen and Hamilton will start from the front row together.

"I think I can be very happy with today. We weren't fast enough in the last race, so I don't know what pace we'll have tomorrow. What I do know is that we're still behind in terms of speed on the straights. That means we're, I would say, a little bit quicker in the corners, especially the slow corners. I think we're a little bit quicker there than Red Bull and some of the other cars, but we're losing a lot on the straights," Hamilton told Sky.

The Bahrain Grand Prix is ​​scheduled for Sunday at 9 a.m. The race was originally scheduled to take place in April, but due to the war in the Middle East, it was decided to move it to Malaysia at the Sepang circuit.

"On a track like this, where the tyre wear is very high and the tyres are very hot all the time, we have to push harder through the corners to try to keep up and make up for what we're losing on the straights. So we have to be careful not to overdo it and not wear the tyres further trying to keep up with them. I think we just have to ride our own race, whatever our pace is and not try to push too hard to keep up with them," said Hamilton.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli will start from third position, followed by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen took the first pole position of the season and was 0,298 seconds faster.

"I think he has the pace to pull away, but if that changes when the race starts, if we can keep up with him and be in the fight, that would be great. But we can only do our best, so I will give my best tomorrow," said Formula 1's most successful driver.