Hamilton: Red Bull more powerful than Mercedes in places

Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull is now in possession of more power than Mercedes at certain grands prix – a first in the V6 Hybrid era.

The Silver Arrows' dominance of the last five seasons has been largely predicated on having the strongest power unit.

However, Ferrari ate into that advantage last year and are now widely believed to have the most powerful engine on the grid, while Renault recently claimed to have reached 1000 bhp with theirs.

Honda have made big strides this year after adding Red Bull to their roster and Hamilton says the difference is already noticeable.

"Sometimes a car's better in [certain] places," he said. "A car is not always the best through a whole season.

"In Austria, the Red Bull was the better package for that circuit. It worked well in the temperatures and everything. Even compared to us it was a good car, and against Ferrari."

Verstappen has outscored Hamilton by 23 points over the last three races, and the championship leader sees future events where the Dutchman could make more gains.

"I think Singapore will be strong for them," he explained. "When we get to the longer places like Monza this year it could be different this year now they have a new power unit, they're not lower than us in power, in some places they've got more power than us.

"So it'll be interesting to see how they go in those races."

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