Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes is facing a significant threat from Ferrari at the Austrian Grand Prix.
In a somewhat disjointed day, the Briton led the morning session in Spielberg despite complaining of no front grip and in the afternoon would not set a low-fuel time on the soft tyre following Valtteri Bottas' crash.
What was interesting, however, is in both sessions the best time of one team was three-tenths faster than the other on one step harder tyres and Hamilton is expecting some strong competition.
“It’s been a clean day with no major issues,” Hamilton said via Crash.net. “I broke a wing a couple of times but I think a lot of people are doing that on the kerbs, I don’t know if we are faster than we were here last year but it feels incredible.
“The Ferraris and the Red Bulls look pretty quick, particularly the Ferraris, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out tomorrow because you never know what they do.
“But I think it’s close, which is good. I love it when it’s close and that means we have our work cut out.”
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Charles Leclerc would be the fastest Ferrari in the afternoon as teammate Sebastian Vettel almost joined Bottas and Max Verstappen in hitting the barrier during Practice 2.
Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly would be four-tenths slower than the Monegasque on the same soft tyres.
“I think today showed they are either with us or slightly ahead of us," Hamilton continued.
“It’s one of those circuits where it’s very close. When you go to Brands Hatch, for example, the difference is only a few tenths.
“The Ferraris are generally very quick on the straights and the Red Bulls have picked up on the straights too. I think that’s definitely going to be the challenge.
“In the race runs they are usually not as quick as us, but today they were quicker, but it’s OK. It is a track that you can follow closer at least and hopefully the tyres are durable.”
