Lewis Hamilton said his Mercedes is ‘not the quickest at the moment’ as he finished ninth in the morning session

Lewis Hamilton has given a downbeat assessment of his team’s chances as his run of pre-season testing drew to a close. Speaking after the morning session on the third and final day of testing in Bahrain, Hamilton was pessimistic ahead of next weekend’s season opener, saying his team is unlikely to compete for race wins. Ad/> George Russell will pilot the Mercedes W13 car for the afternoon session after Hamilton could only deliver the ninth fastest time of the morning, 3.112 seconds off the pace of front runner Sergio Perez in the Red Bull.

Formula 1Perez tops the lap times as Red Bull unveil sculpted new side pods in the morning session3 HOURS AGO «We are not the quickest at the moment,» he said. «Ferrari look quickest, then perhaps Red Bull, and maybe McLaren. But we’re currently not at the top.

/> »At the moment, I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins." At the end of Day 2 of testing, Carlos Sainz was suspicious of similar claims from the German team, suggesting that they were driving within themselves to deceive the field. But Hamilton moved to dismiss the accusation in his post-testing comments. «Next week we will get a much better showing of our pace but I think people will be surprised maybe,» he said.

«Or at least people keep talking about us talking ourselves down. But it’s a bit different this year.» Hamilton has admitted to struggling to “tame” the car this season that has suffered from quite drastic understeer and the dreaded ‘porpoising’ that has plagued the teams. Mercedes have seen the bobbing that has characterised this season's testing more than most, as they contend with the reintroduction of ‘ground-effect’ to the regulations.