Lewis Hamilton has admitted that while his Bahrain Grand Prix battle with old Formula 1 rival Fernando Alonso was "fun", he did not fight the "different league" Aston Martin. Alonso made his final pit-stop for Hard tyres four laps after Hamilton in Sakhir, and quickly began to reel the Mercedes in. He did briefly get past at Turn 4 on Lap 37 before Hamilton retook the place on corner exit, but the two-time champion got ahead again at Turn 10 next time by. Alonso went on to clinch a podium after passing Carlos Sainz while Charles Leclerc retired from the race. Hamilton would finish fifth, but felt it was not worth fighting with Alonso as he "knew" Alonso would come past.
Hamilton explains Alonso battle
"It was fun for a moment, he was in a different league at the time performance-wise, because he pulled away so much [after passing]," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.cm. "But I enjoyed the little tussle we had, and I knew he was going to come by because of the way he caught me." Hamilton also praised Aston for the steps they have taken in breaking out of the midfield and into the three-way fight for second with Ferrari and Mercedes. The Briton also suggested that Mercedes needed to do better given the fact that Aston use the Silver Arrows' facilities. "Big congrats to Fernando, he did a great job and it really is amazing to see, and all the Aston Martin team did an amazing job," Hamilton said. "Half of their car is ours, and they build their car in our wind tunnel and do their aero in our wind tunnel, so we've got some work to do."
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