Hamilton concerned Ferrari could wipe out Mercedes' Shanghai dominance

Lewis Hamilton expects Mercedes' dominance of the Chinese Grand Prix to come under threat from Ferrari this weekend. The Silver Arrows have won from pole each year in the hybrid era, but head to Shanghai nursing back-to-back defeats at the hands of Sebastian Vettel in Australia and Bahrain.

Vettel has opened up a healthy 17-point gap over Hamilton and has history on his side - a driver has not won the opening two races of a season and failed to go on to win the title since 1982.

Mercedes have been peerless in Shanghai over the past four years, Hamilton winning three times from pole to take his record haul at the circuit to five victories.

But with their power advantage over the Scuderia now diminished, Hamilton says the happy hunting ground with be more contested than in recent years.

"They are going to be hard to beat," said Hamilton of Ferrari. "Their straight-line speed in the last few races has been faster than ours and we have the longest straights here. So I'm anticipating they will be very, very fast and hard to beat.

"They are faster than us on the straights and as quick as us through the corners. Their engine programme has really taken a big step this season. It will be interesting to see how their reliability will be - as it will be for Renault and us.

"This should be a good track for us but I think it's going to be close."

Despite his concerns, Hamilton remains confident that Mercedes can help him beat Vettel to a fifth world title.

"I still believe we are the best team," he said. "We definitely have the potential to win races and to fight for this championship. But what's important is that we all stay on our toes.

"We all need to be performing at our utmost and it's even more crucial this year as it's magnified because we are so close.

"Ferrari are really performing well - and both Kimi [Raikkonen] and Sebastian are performing really well - so l think it's a tougher season than last year. Ferrari have got a very fast car and there are millimetres between us."