Lewis Hamilton says there will soon be a "big race" between Red Bull and Mercedes having studied the pace of both teams in Malaysia.

After taking pole position, Hamilton went on to take a dominant victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix by over 17s from team-mate Nico Rosberg, with Sebastian Vettel finishing in third place. However, Vettel was pressuring Rosberg for much of the middle of the race and Hamilton is fully aware that Red Bull will soon be a match for Mercedes on pace.

"Sebastian was massively quick, he was applying pressure to Nico and looking at their pace their car is just as quick as ours through all the corners, just a little bit slower on the straights," Hamilton said. "So I have no doubts at all that Renault are going to fix that, and when they do you're going to see a big race between us and the Bulls.

"They still have a fantastic car, I've looked at the GPS and they're the same speed as us through all the corners."

Asked by Crash.net if he was excited by the prospect of a straight fight with Vettel in closely-matched machinery, Hamilton replied: "Definitely, that's what Formula One is all about, close racing like that, but I'll take [the dominant Malaysia win]."