McLaren drivers wary of improved BMW

By Alan Baldwin

MANAMA (Reuters) - McLaren's Lewis Hamilton cast a wary eye towards the challenge from BMW Sauber on Saturday and warned that the Formula One championship looked like a three-way battle.

"That's how it looks, definitely," Hamilton told reporters after Poland's Robert Kubica put BMW on pole position for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

"They seem to have made a big step forward and are a lot closer to us at least," he added. "But Ferrari are also very, very quick.

"I think it looks similar to last year but just that they (BMW) are closer to both of us."

After two races, Hamilton leads Ferrari's Finnish world champion Kimi Raikkonen and BMW Sauber's German Nick Heidfeld by three points.

BMW are eight points clear of champions Ferrari in the constructors' standings and five behind leaders McLaren.

Hamilton said McLaren might need to revise their race strategy to face the new challenge.

"We're having to take into account the pace of the BMWs now, whereas last year we really didn't have to do that so much because it was mainly targeting and looking out for what the Ferraris were going to do," he said.