Lewis Hamilton left fearing dual Ferrari fight in quest for fifth World Championship

LEWIS HAMILTON fears he will have to fight two Ferraris if he wants to win a fifth drivers’ crown this season.

The British ace reckons the Italian team showed in Australia that Kimi Raikkonen will be used to aid Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton was called in from the lead to cover Raikkonen’s pit-stop in Melbourne on Sunday but that allowed Vettel to leapfrog him for the win after Mercedes cocked up their calculations.

And Hamilton said: “I was racing one against two. It is not easy to fight against a team with two cars in the mix rather than one.

“Hopefully it won’t always be the same but last year showed it was important to have both cars up there and this year it is going to be even more important than ever before.

“Kimi is suddenly driving really well, which is great to see. He has done a lot of seasons. You’ve also got the Red Bulls up there.

Hamilton left Melbourne still mystified how his team got their numbers wrong when Vettel took advantage of a virtual safety car to snatch a victory even he German admitted was lucky.

Mercedes thought they had 15 seconds in hand when Romain Grosjean’s Haas car stopped on track and Vettel’s lead was just 12 secs.

But the numbers were wrong and the German came out ahead with Hamilton unable to use the extra pace in his car to overtake his rival.

Hamilton insists he can hit back in Bahrain next week but knows team-mate Valtteri Bottas - way down the field after starting 15th following a qualifying crash - will have to help out.

The Herts-born racer added: “We are working hard together and Valtteri will make sure he is up there and fighting with us.

“He will be fighting for wins this year I am sure. There is a long, long way to go in the championship and it is not all won in one race.

“We have got a great car and we are still the world champions. With a couple of adjustments I believe we can win the next race.”