Sebastian Vettel believes he will be able to attack Lewis Hamilton in the Bahrain Grand Prix after qualifying alongside the championship leader.

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Hamilton took pole position by 0.4s after an exciting qualifying session, with Vettel able to beat Nico Rosberg to second position as he had in Malaysia when he went on to win. Mercedes has taken pole position at all four races so far this season but Vettel is confident Ferrari will once again prove to be a bigger threat in race trim.

“First of all I’m very happy with second today,” Vettel said. “It was a tough session. At the beginning I didn’t really find the rhythm that I seemed to have in practice but then towards the end more and more it was getting better, I was feeling happier in the car and I felt more comfortable to push.

“For now I’m very happy with the front row and hopefully tomorrow we can have a good start and then a good race from there. In the race we are maybe a bit closer so we will see what happens.”

Later talking about Ferrari’s hopes of victory, with Hamilton having already noted the threat from Vettel, the German replied: “Lewis said earlier that we will be difficult to beat and he’s right.”

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