Red Bull not at Mercedes and Ferrari's level - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes and Ferrari have taken a leap away from Red Bull in the early races of 2018. Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo failed to make the podium in Australia and Bahrain, having looked like title candidates in pre-season testing.

Red Bull have offered promising pace, but are yet to put it together on Sundays, with the double DNF in Bahrain following an Australian Grand Prix which saw Ricciardo given a grid penalty and Verstappen spin.

The Renault engine remains in deficit to the Ferrari and Mercedes power units, as evidenced by Red Bull's comparative struggles in qualifying, and Hamilton believes the Silver Arrows and Scuderia remain ahead.

"The team has the potential to win races," Hamilton said of Red Bull. "In testing they looked a lot faster than they have done in the last two races.

"But so far they are not operating on the same level as Ferrari or Mercedes. Ferrari have almost been flawless, and we are working on being flawless."

With Vettel having taken victories in the first two races, Hamilton is already 17 points behind the German.

Ferrari's smarts under the Virtual Safety Car in Melbourne and Vettel's performance on the tyres in Sakhir have been crucial, but Hamilton doesn't think Mercedes have hit their top level yet.

"We arrived with our A-game in Australia and didn't finish on our A-game," he said.

"Then in the last one we performed well, but we were on the back foot with the penalty I had taken. Ferrari just outperformed us throughout the whole weekend.

"The A-game applies to everything across the board, and there are so many things that keep the board afloat.

"It's like a table with four legs - if two of those legs aren't there, then the table falls over."