Hamilton fearful of Bahrain winds in "unstable" Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton has described the Mercedes W12 as unstable and believes increased winds forecast across the weekend are "not good" for the Silver Arrows.

Hamilton set the third-fastest time in second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the only session that takes place in temperatures representative to those seen in qualifying and the race.

The session was topped by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen with a time of one minute 30.847secs, an effort 0.235s faster than Hamilton's best.

Claiming Mercedes has "a hill to climb" to overhaul Red Bull, asked what was needed for the team to make a step forward with the car, Hamilton answered: “Stability.

"It’s all about having a stable car and being able to make the tyres last. That’s going to be key in this climate and with the wind that we have here.”

Across the three days of pre-season testing, the changes in wind direction and speed had a considerable effect on lap times.

Forecasts indicate the wind speed is set to double for qualifying and increase further on Sunday with the direction also changing, providing a tailwind on the main straight but a crosswind through some of the more technical parts of the track.

“That’s not great for us being that the rear is unstable as it is," assessed Hamilton.

"But I’m sure that everyone will be in the same boat, some more and some less."

On the pace of rivals Red Bull, Hamilton said: “We thought Red Bull would be as fast as they are, if not faster, so we know they are leading at the moment.

“McLaren are looking great and it’s great to see them taking a step. It will be interesting to see how the long runs are.”

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