Hamilton blasts 'AVERAGE' Mercedes car performance during qualifying

Lewis Hamilton was brutally honest about where things went wrong for Mercedes as he qualified only seventh on the grid for Sunday's 2023 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion appeared to have taken a major step forward in the W14 when he finished P4 in FP3 earlier on Saturday, just over two-tenths of a second behind the pace-setting Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

The gap widened on Saturday evening though as he qualified some 0.676 seconds behind reigning world champion and pole sitter Max Verstappen.

Hamilton disillusioned after qualifying misery

Afterwards, he told Sky Sports F1: "We did a lot of work overnight with the engineers, they did a great job and we made a step forward today. The car was feeling much more alive this morning and all of a sudden we were in a different place than we were the day before.

"But then when we got to qualifying the car just didn't feel alive, it felt kind of average. The direction I'm going with setup I'm hoping works better for tomorrow. I've tried to set it up for tomorrow."

READ MORE: Red Bull dominate qualifying as Verstappen takes first pole of season

Whilst the gap to Red Bull appears significant, Hamilton still believes his team can make inroads, but added that they will need to work harder than ever.

"We were six-tenths behind I think, last year [at] this time, and we had bouncing and all sorts of things. It's not an impossible mountain to climb so that's a positive and I know that everybody back at the factory has been working so hard.

"We can definitely close that gap, we've just got to really focus and push like never before."

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