LEWIS HAMILTON and Max Verstappen have both been spotted in Bahrain ahead of F1 official testing.
The drivers are preparing for another season where they are set to battle it out for the F1 world championship.
Lewis Hamilton (right) and Max Verstappen are set for another championship battle
Verstappen is ready to defend his world title
Hamilton has warned that his best is yet to come
Official testing in Bahrain will give drivers a better indication of the state of their cars
Early signs look promising for Mercedes after Hamilton and new driver George Russell posted the fastest two laps in Barcelona at the end of last month.
But Russell does have some concerns over the new car and puts his fast time down to the soft tyres he used in Spain.
Red Bull also looked strong in the first stage of testing but Bahrain should provide a better indication of how the teams match up heading into the season.
The first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain is a little over a week away but both Hamilton and Verstappen looked cool and composed.
And the Mercedes man has already fired a warning shot to Verstappen and Red Bull.
He declared: “If you think what you saw at the end of last year was my best, wait until you see this year.”
Hamilton finished the stronger out of the two in the last campaign despite losing in Abu Dhabi.
The Brit won three of the last four races and would have claimed victory at Yas Marina had disgraced race director Michael Masi not broken his own safety rules.
Hamilton is probably not over that fiasco, which will be relived on Netflix’s Drive to Survive series when it airs on Friday.
Former F1 star Anthony Davidson believes a ‘hurt’ Hamilton is ready to bounce back after hearing his warning to Verstappen.
Davidson said: “When Lewis Hamilton comes out with a sentence like that, you have to take notice.
Red Bull looked fast at testing in Barcelona
“He sure is fired up to win this thing once and for all and I think he’ll be hard to beat.
“He’s certainly coming into this season with a very bullish mentality.
“There will be nothing more than Lewis wants from this season than to destroy Max Verstappen.
“Let’s not beat around a bush, he feels absolutely robbed as to what happened last year in Abu Dhabi, he wants to come out with a dominant car and he doesn’t even want to see Max on track, I’m sure.”
Meanwhile, F1 is set to line up without Nikita Mazepin after he was sacked by Haas and replaced by Kevin Magnussen.
And Russian driver Mazepin and his father Dmitry were hit by EU sanctions this week due to the latter’s close ties with Vladimir Putin.
