"Potential podiums possible" - Lewis Hamilton sees a 'good fight up front' for him and Mercedes

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton claims his team could potentially fight for podium finishes in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix main race. The Briton managed to put his W13 in P5 despite being considerably off the pace all weekend in Melbourne.

With Ferrari and Red Bull having established themselves as the top two teams to beat, the question that now remains is - who is the best of the rest? Alpine's Fernando Alonso showed tremendous qualifying pace and was set to place at the top of the grid before crashing out due to a hydraulic failure. Meanwhile, McLaren's Lando Norris made an excellent comeback, finishing the session in P4.

Hamilton is optimistic of a solid finish for Mercedes in tomorrow's race, claiming a podium finish is not off the table. The Briton said:

"I think we did a decent job to get to where we are cause we had a bigger deficit yesterday. My last lap, I felt like there was more in it. I had this unexpected step of grip and didn't get to maximize it but I am happy with it."

Meanwhile, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz only managed to finish in P9 as he got his lap-time deleted following Alonso's red flag. Upon hearing about Sainz's position at the end of qualifying, Hamilton said:

“Well, that means we’ve got a good fight upfront and potential podiums possible, who knows? Just going to be battling as hard as I can, trying to go for the line as well as I can.”

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Lando Norris claims F1 will see a different side to Lewis Hamilton due to Mercedes' struggle

Lando Norris believes that F1 will get to witness a “different side” of Lewis Hamilton in 2022 due to Mercedes' lack of competitiveness to challenge the front runners.

The McLaren driver thinks it will be interesting to see how the seven-time world champion copes with no longer having the most dominant car on the grid, forcing him to work harder for better finishes. Mercedes has been the most dominant team in the turbo-hybrid era, having won the constructors' championship every year since 2014.

Speaking to the press ahead of the Australian GP, Norris said:

“With Lewis [Hamilton], you are seeing the challenge of one of the best drivers competing in a car that is not the best. We will see a different side of Lewis, compared to the last decade.”

With Sunday's main race just around the corner, Lewis Hamilton is in a very good position to demonstrate his immaculate racing craft. With Norris starting ahead of him in P4, the world champion's job, however, is not going to be easy by any means, as the Woking-based team tries to make a comeback.