Hamilton feels Mercedes is chasing Ferrari in Chinese GP

Ferrari appeared to be in good shape after Kimi Raikkonen led Sebastian Vettel in a one-two for the team in second practice with Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Hamilton third and fourth.

Raikkonen admitted Ferrari only has strong pace on the super-soft tyre but Hamilton believes his rival's pace is genuine.

The reigning world champion will also start no higher than sixth on Sunday, owing to five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

"I think the numbers are real but we shall see," said Hamilton.

"I haven't spoken to the engineers but that's my assumption.

"The Ferraris are particularly strong so it looks like we're going to have a real fight this weekend.

"I'm behind them. It means that it's going to be harder to overtake them so getting into the top three is going to be hard on Sunday for sure.

"It seems that we're going to have a bigger fight than we ever have, so it should be good for the fans."

Hamilton said he struggled to find a good balance and that Mercedes has a lot of work to do overnight.

"On my side it has been a difficult day, but you have those days, in terms of getting the balance," he said.

"I definitely don't have a perfect balance.

"The balance is not that great at the moment but we're working on it.

"There has been a couple of mistakes but it has generally been that we had some brake balance issues on the first couple of runs.

"We're struggling a little bit in some areas but we'll work hard this evening to try and fix it.

"We've learned a lot, we've just got some improvements we need to make, that's for sure."