Hamilton 'surprised' at genuine threat from Ferrari in Monaco

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari could pose a genuine threat to Mercedes and Red Bull at Monaco after the Scuderia ended Thursday practice with a shock one-two.

Hamilton has scored three victories from the opening four races of the year to open up a 14-point gap over Red Bull rival Max Verstappen.

But it was not Verstappen and Red Bull that provided Hamilton's greatest challenge around the Principality but Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz the only drivers to dip under 72 seconds for their laps.

“I’ve generally enjoyed it," said Hamilton on his return to the track. "It’s a challenge. Naturally, I think the Ferraris are really strong. It’s surprising to see them improve so much but that’s great. It means more competition.”

Asked if he believed the threat from Ferrari was genuine, he added: “I’m seeing what you’re seeing and I’m generally just focused on my job but it looks like it so we’ll see.”

Evidence from the season so far suggests Mercedes struggle to switch its tyres on in qualifying compared to Red Bull.

Although the Silver Arrows then come alive during the race, that trade-off holds less of an advantage at Monaco where overtaking is almost impossible.

Instead of focusing on Verstappen, who was fourth fastest in FP2 just seven-thousandths of a second behind Hamilton, the Briton again made reference to Ferrari.

"The tyres are generally lasting several laps so you have more than just one lap to get the time which in some ways is good, but there’s traffic and it’s not an easy track to navigate," added Hamilton.

“Ferrari, particularly in the past for whatever reason, have been very quick at getting temperatures in. Red Bull is generally like that too so we’ve got some work to do.”

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