Hamilton believes Mercedes can battle with Red Bull this weekend

"It [Friday] was great. I woke up this morning so excited to get in the car and FP1 was actually a really good session for us," Hamilton told Sky Sports, before adding: "The car was feeling good from the get-go, thanks to great work from everyone in the factory. We made some changes from FP1 to FP2. It wasn't as good, but it's good data to have.

"So we have some work to do tonight to see if we can turn it around for tomorrow but we're there or thereabouts. [We're] not as quick as the Red Bulls and obviously the McLaren, but really quick, so got some work to pick up."

Potential battle with Red Bull?

When questioned about where more pace might be found and who the Brit sees as a challenge this weekend, an eyebrow-raising answer was given, with Hamilton believing that Mercedes can battle with Red Bull on Saturday and Sunday.

"I think the Red Bulls are a little bit quicker as always, I don't necessarily anticipate we'll easily be able to beat them, but I think we're going to be close. We want to get up as high up as possible because it's not so easy to overtake here. It'd be great to be able to be in the top three in qualifying, just depends on the job that we do tonight," the Brit explained.

To round off, he stated where he feels the pace is varying and how it can be fixed ahead of qualifying tomorrow: "It's a little bit everywhere. I mean, the McLaren was much quicker in the first sector than us. I think it's, particularly in the long run, tyre overheating, and it's trying to make sure you extract the most out of the tyres and get the tyres into the right window to start your lap. I think we've been slow in the first sector, but good in the last sector, so just trying to find the right balance there."