Leading Formula one driver, Lewis Hamilton stated that the struggle against Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas is real and he expects them to "fly by" with a potential and crucial strategy.
After six wins out of nine in the 2020 season, Hamilton has his first chance to equal Michael Schumacher's record of 91-victories in formula one. However, Hamilton will be racing on soft-tyres rather than the medium compounds opted by Max Verstappen and Bottas which might help his fellow teammate to gather up enough potential to overtake Hamilton.
"Ultimately, I'm starting on the soft tyre, which is not good," admitted Hamilton."
He added, "So, undoubtedly I'm most likely to get dragged past and both the cars I'm racing against, they are both on the medium, so definitely it's going to make it hard to win the race."
Hamilton is worried that Bottas and Verstappen could overtake him easily. "I generally expect one of these two to come flying by at some point," said Hamilton."
Also See: Valtteri Bottas Believes That He Can Beat His Teammate in F1
"Obviously I'm on the worst tyre to start on the race, so that's going to be a struggle. I don't know if that puts me onto a two-stop, I don't know, unlikely because the pit lane is too slow, so I'm just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.
"These guys, if they get by, they're going to be pulling away so I'm going to sit down to try to figure out if there's a different kind of race I can do to keep my position."
Verstappen said in an interview that he could have a better pace than the Mercedes team with the medium tyres fitted.
"I think [the medium] is the right tyre to be on, and with race pace, I'm confident it's going to be good. Definitely confident and there's all to play for."
"Overall I think the Mercedes guys are a bit faster in race pace so I'll try my very best to stay with them and see what happens," said Verstappen. "I would like to have a good start, and by start I mean once I go full throttle to have full power, that would be nice and then not get taken out! After two retirements I think it's good to score some points again."
Russian GP Provisional Grid
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
4. Sergio Perez, Racing Point
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault
6. Carlos Sainz, McLaren
7. Esteban Ocon, Renault
8. Lando Norris, McLaren
9. Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri
10. Alex Albon, Red Bull
11. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
12. Daniil Kvyat, AlphaTauri
13. Lance Stroll, Racing Point
14. George Russell, Williams
15. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
16. Romain Grosjean, Haas
17. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo
18. Kevin Magnussen, Haas
19. Nicholas Latifi, Williams
20. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo
