Lewis Hamilton thanked his mechanics for working through the night to provide him with a car that has given him a shot at winning tomorrow's Bahrain Grand Prix.

The current Formula One world championship leader wrecked his original car in practice yesterday, resulting in him taking to the track today in the spare chassis.

It will have certainly led to a few bleary eyes amongst his crew as they will have worked on Hamilton's car into the small hours.

But after claiming third on the grid, finishing within 0.2 seconds of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, Hamilton was happy enough.

"The team stayed up all night, and so a big thank you to them for preparing the car. It was great," said Hamilton, who has a three-point lead over Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld.

"It was encouraging to see the car was exactly the same and I had no problems. It felt very good, so my position on the grid is far from disappointing.

"Of course, I would prefer to be on pole, but the team have done a great job to recover from the accident I had.

"I knew I would be competing for the top three, and I was quite happy with my lap, although there are always improvements you can make.

"But I'm in a good position for tomorrow, so I'm quite happy."

Hamilton insisted there were no lingering after-effects following his smash which he put to the back of his mind the moment he was back on track in final practice earlier today.

"An accident makes absolutely no difference, I just get back in the car and go faster," said a determined Hamilton.

"On my first lap today I went quicker through the corner where I had my accident than I did yesterday.

"It was important to knock down that barrier and bounce back, but then I've never had problems with that because I've had plenty of experiences throughout my career."

Although close friend Kubica is on pole, the pace of the Ferrari is a concern for Hamilton, who has Felipe Massa ahead of him in second on the grid and Raikkonen behind him in fourth.

"Ferrari's speed is definitely impressive," confirmed Hamilton.

"They seem to have outstanding pace at the moment, which means I have to make sure I get off to a good start tomorrow and try and pace myself from there."

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