Hamilton: I would say a win is out of the question

For Mercedes, used to front row starts, it was a rare lockout for them with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on pole and third respectively, and sensational Mercedes powered Lando Norris in second, the meat in the Red Bull sandwich.

Hamilton was only good for fourth at Red Bull Ring today, with no answer to Verstappen by three-tenths in Q3, prompting the defending champion's concerns.

Speaking to Sky F1 after qualifying, Hamilton said: "It will be even more of a challenge than last week. We continue to lack pace, we tried everything to get more out of the car.

"We have got to find performance in the next races. I don't know if McLaren have brought an upgrade - but they were quick today, great job by Lando. We've just got a try and improve. When I look at it, I'm losing out on the lap. Max is just faster.

"I would say a win is out of the question. I think [Red Bull] have improved their car again this weekend, so that's an easy cruise win for Max. Maybe we can just try and get ahead of at least Sergio Perez and limit the damage this weekend."

"We've just got to try and improve, we've still got a long way to go. In the heat today, Red Bull seemed to step forwards and we stepped backwards so let's see what tomorrow brings," added the defending F1 World Champion.

Teammate Valtteri Bottas, who will start the race from fifth on the grid, summed up his afternoon: "I was hoping to fight for the pole but today it was out of reach. It seemed like we went a little bit backwards from last weekend or others gained more than us.

"I would say we're missing maybe a tenth or two from where we should have been and clearly McLaren has found something with the C5 compound this weekend, it seems to work well with their car.

"I think race pace-wise we should be in better shape - all the developing we've done with the car setup is aiming a bit more towards the race pace so we need to learn from today and then I'm sure we can get a good result for the team tomorrow.

"I'm still expecting a big fight with Red Bull in the race," predicted the Finn.

Hamilton trails in the drivers' championship by 18 points. For now, the deficit is 18 points to Verstappen while Mercedes are 40 adrift of Red Bull in the constructors' after eight rounds. They have work to do on Sunday at to limit the damage.