Lewis Hamilton was left baffled as Mercedes could only manage fourth and fifth in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.
On the day Hamilton signed a new two-year contract until the end of 2023, the seven-time world champion finished three-tenths off the pole time set by Max Verstappen.
And after what was Mercedes’ worst result in a dry qualifying session since the 2017 Singapore GP, Hamilton was quick to rule out victory on Sunday.
“On pure pace, it’s definitely out of the question,” he said via Sky Sports post-session.
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“Those guys (Red Bull) have got two cars to get through in front, and they’ve got three-tenths on us.
“I think they’ve improved their car again for this weekend – so I would say that’s an easy cruise [to a] win for Max. I think for us it’s to try and see if we can get ahead of Perez and try to limit the damage this weekend.”
What frustrates Hamilton more is how Mercedes has stood still compared to last weekend despite him spending more time in the simulator and generally putting more effort into finding gains.
“I don’t have an answer for it; we just weren’t quick. We just weren’t any quicker,” he said.
“[We] put in the time, worked so hard to improve the car, but this is our underlying pace. I don’t know if they’ve improved the car again this weekend, I have no idea, but we haven’t, and we’ve just got to keep working.
“We’ve got to really find performance in the following races,” Lewis stated. “I don’t know if McLaren has got an upgrade but they’re mega quick today, so mega quick from Lando (Norris in P2), and yes, we’ve just got to try and improve.”
With Pirelli bringing the softest three compounds to the second Austria race, Hamilton was asked if he saw an opportunity to use strategy to challenge those ahead.
“I don’t, we definitely can’t take it to the Red Bulls, obviously. Just too fast,” he declared. “But maybe we can step up, I guess my race now is with the two guys ahead of me – trying to get past them.”
As for teammate Valtteri Bottas, the Finn thinks Mercedes’ main issue was finding the extra performance from the soft tyre.
“Difference today? Last week we didn’t have the C5 compound – seems like Red Bull and especially McLaren could find a bit more with that compound compared to us,” he said.