Lewis Hamilton is confident McLaren can challenge Red Bull for victory in Indian GP

Lewis Hamilton has declared that McLaren can "definitely" challenge Red Bull for victory in the Indian Grand Prix given the race pace displayed by the MP4-27 during practice.

While the battle for pole position on Saturday in effect proved a private duel between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, McLaren nonetheless overcame tyre warm-up issues to lock out the front row with Hamilton beating team-mate Jenson Button to third.
However, as also appeared the case at the previous race in Korea, McLaren are far more confident in their car's performance over the longer, heavier fuel runs with the picture from Friday practice having suggested that there is not so much to choose between them and Red Bull and Ferrari.
Indeed Hamilton predicted that while the two Red Bulls may have been out of reach over a single lap, Sunday is likely to be a different story.
Asked if he was happy with third on the grid, the Briton replied: "Absolutely.
"The team have done a great job this weekend in just trying to dial the set-up into the car and to have us on the second row, we're not quick enough to be ahead of these guys [the Red Bulls], but we can definitely challenge them in the race.
 
"I think our race pace was just as good as theirs through practice. So I'm excited about it."
Hamilton's confidence for a more competitive Sunday was shared by Sky Sports F1's Johnny Herbert, who agreed that Friday's long runs had been too close to call.
"I think we did see that yesterday," he said in reflection on Hamilton's comments that McLaren are closer on race pace.
"It was interesting to see what Christian [Horner] was saying asking about 'do you know what fuel loads they were on' and everything else but I think generally the race is going to be a completely different here."
Damon Hill believes that Red Bull are indeed wary about the threat likely to be posed by McLaren over the race distance and will know that Hamilton, who is effectively out of the title battle, in particular has nothing to lose.
"I sense from speaking to Christian that he wasn't as confident, perhaps cocky, as Sebastian was about this qualifying as they would have liked to have been. It gets tighter," the 1996 World Champion observed.
"I sense they are nervous about McLaren and I'd be nervous about Lewis Hamilton because he hasn't got much to lose. He's on the grippy side of the track and this is a dusty old grid."
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