Hamilton: We have some fundamental limitations

Suzuka humbled the, soon to be dethroned, reigning F1 World Champions with Hamilton and Russell, sixth and eighth respectively; high-speed circuits with twisty bits provide no hiding place for the Silver Arrows, and they know it.

Hamilton's best lap in Q3 was nearly a full second down on Max Verstappen's pole position-winning time, with Russell another tenth shy placing them in a very tight midfield for the start of the 36th running of the Grand Prix in Japan.

Hamilton, a five-time winner at Suzuka in the past, summed up his Saturday: "We knew coming to this circuit that we wouldn't be competing for the front row or the win - the Red Bull and Ferrari are in a different league here, and we have some fundamental limitations with our car.

"It feels good to drive and it was a clean session for me, but we are just a long way off in terms of the ultimate pace. We are pushing as hard as we can and it feels strong in the corners, but we are losing on the straights at this circuit.

For [the race], I hope we will be a little bit closer, and maybe the weather will play a role, too. I don't think we can race the cars in front in a straight fight - but I hope we can beat the Alpines and my focus is simply on scoring a better result than we managed last weekend."

Hamilton referencing Mercedes' worst Sunday of the season in Singapore last Sunday, the team netting a mere two points and making their second-place ambitions in the 2022 F1 constructors' championship - meaning to beat Ferrari - so much more difficult with only five races remaining.

In the other Mercedes, Russell was also unhappy with how his day panned out and said as much in the team report: "P8 is not where we hoped to be qualifying here in Suzuka. We didn't expect to quite be in the fight with Red Bull and Ferrari, but we are a long way off them, and in fact had our own close battle today with Alpine."

"We know that our car has a lot of drag and on circuits like this, where you need a lot of downforce but also to be slippery on the straights, we tend to lose out. That's something we are working towards correcting for next year, but it takes time to do so," explained Russell.

Looking ahead to his second race at Suzuka, he added: "I think we'll have stronger pace than we showed today: our long runs in FP3 were decent, but I'm not sure if it will be enough to race the top four cars."

Final word to trackside boss Andrew Shovlin: "We've been struggling with the car in the dry today; the race work in the morning wasn't bad but the single lap was proving difficult, and the tyres just weren't biting.

"We're losing a lot of time on the straights, but the corners are not especially strong either. By qualifying the balance was in a reasonable place but the lap time just wasn't coming. We stayed on the higher rear wing levels as the degradation in the morning was very high and there is a growing risk of rain in tomorrow's race.

"In both of those situations, the wing level should be a benefit. It will not be a benefit getting past the Alpine cars, though, which we need to do early if we stand any chance of getting into a race with Red Bull and Ferrari," concluded Shovlin.

Worth noting that Hamilton has yet to win a Grand Prix this season and at this rate may not do so all season, which would mean the end of his remarkable record of winning an F1 race every year since his rookie season in 2007. All of his 103 victories in the top flight have been powered by Mercedes.