Hamilton insists Bottas is not the only rival this year

Lewis Hamilton has said that it is ‘too early’ to suggest that his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas is his only rival left for the 2019 season.

Bottas won ahead of Hamilton in Baku and leads the brit by one point in the championship while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel is 35 points behind in third place ahead of Max Verstappen and teammate Charles Leclerc.
 
"No it is far too early to say one person is the title rival," Hamilton said (quoted by BBC).
 
"Ferrari have had the pace in practice in qualifying. If both drivers had delivered as we did, it would have been a lot closer.

"We have stay on our toes. We didn't bring an upgrade and Ferrari did, so it's a little but of a surprise.”

Ferrari looked to have been the quicker car throughout the weekend, as they have mostly at the previous races this year too, but again came up short in qualifying and during the race.

F1 next goes to Barcelona in Spain where the Scuderia showed their pace in winter testing earlier this year.

"We will go [to the next race in Spain] and Ferrari looked quick there in testing and I am sure they will bring extra upgrades,” Hamilton said.

"These first four [races] have been stellar for us and we just have to stay on our toes because you just never know when another team is going to take a step forward.
 
“We have to continue to perform as we have and not let that waver."