Lewis Hamilton was "encouraged" by Mercedes' pace despite his qualifying crash at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion was in the battle for pole with Max Verstappen and the Ferraris at the Red Bull Ring, but it all went south in Q3 as he slid off into the barriers during his first run.
"We were fighting for the top three, I think. I don’t have an answer to it, I just lost the back end in Turn 7 and that was that," he told reporters post-session.
Hamilton's qualifying ends in the barriers 💥😖#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/vue7GDQYJm
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 8, 2022
“I’m incredibly disappointed in myself, ultimately.
"I’m so sorry to the team, everyone worked so hard to put this car together and I never like to bring it back damaged."
Now, Hamilton faces a recovery from P10 on the grid for the rest of the weekend, starting with the Sprint on Saturday.
But with expectations having been tempered beforehand, the Briton does think Mercedes can make progress.
"I’m encouraged, of course, to see our performance," he said. "We weren’t expecting to be as close as that today so that’s a huge positive.
"But I’m really quite far back. I don’t know what’s possible from there but we have a sprint race as well so I hope that tomorrow I can make up for some lost time."
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To make matters worse for Mercedes, George Russell also crashed out in Q3, though will start the Sprint from P5 after getting a first flying lap in
But team boss Toto Wolff hopes his drivers don't "beat themselves up" over it.
"We’ve given them a car that wasn’t on par for 10 races in a row," he told Sky Sports.
"Now we’re starting to come to terms and we’re able to drive in front and then it can happen that you just lose the car.
"I’d rather have a fast car and a qualifying like this than not having the pace to be in the top four."
