Mercedes admit a "substantial" top speed disadvantage to Ferrari could make a challenge for victory very difficult in Bahrain.

After their domination in Australia, the Silver Arrows could only claim the second row in the desert as Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari 1-2 in qualifying.

The gap between the two teams was much smaller than in practice, however, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas within a tenth of Sebastian Vettel in P2.

“We have seen incredible pace from the Ferraris,” the world champion declared afterwards. “Honestly I didn’t know we would be as close as we were at the end.

“For us, the car has felt okay, I just think over the years it has not been a circuit that particularly suited our car for whatever reason, but we got into quite a nice place today.

“Somehow they have managed to find a lot more speed on the straights," Hamilton added. “Sector 1 we were losing three tenths or two tenths just on straight-line speed, so that is a significant amount.”

Also Read:

• Leclerc 'very happy' to beat Vettel as he claims maiden F1 pole
• Hamilton: Ferrari pace 'completely different' to Melbourne

One of the rumours spreading after Melbourne was that Ferrari had been running down on power due to cooling issues, which the Italian team has rejected during the weekend.

Regardless, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff warned the impact of the sudden gap in top speed could be huge.

“On long runs, we were doing OK, that looked good,” he told Sky Sports. “But we are lacking in straight line speed at the moment – whether that is track or power, we need to analyse.

“Obviously, it’s not great for the race either as overtaking will be an option tomorrow, but you need to have a fast car on the straights.”

The Austrian also admitted Mercedes had already begun seeking answers to the shortfall, believing both pure power and drag were to blame.

“That post-mortem started mid-qualifying when we realised that we’re lacking the speed, and we’ll take the analysis from there,” he concluded.