Hamilton worry on Red Bull's "power hungry" home turf

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes can give Red Bull "a run for their money" over the forthcoming double-header in Austria but only if it can "maximise everything".

Seven-time F1 champion Hamilton is concerned about a repeat over the next two weekends of Mercedes' pace deficit to Red Bull that was seen in France.

Hamilton's defeat to Verstappen at the Paul Ricard Circuit means he has dropped 12 points adrift of his Red Bull rival and in need of a confidence boost ahead of his home race at Silverstone next month and with F1's August break looming.

Assessing the two races on Red Bull's home soil, Hamilton said: "It’s a power-hungry circuit, it's got those long long straights so we could see something similar to France given the straight-line speed of the Red Bull.

"We’ve three days to try and see if we can make any adjustments and improvements and if we maximise absolutely everything maybe we can give them a run for their money."

Hamilton was comfortably beaten to pole position by Verstappen in qualifying by a quarter of a second as Red Bull's new Honda power unit appeared to give it an edge.

"We've got to find some pace, that's for sure," added Hamilton. "Most of the time we lost was on the straights.

"So we've got to dig deep, try and figure out where that is, and whether it's power or drag but overall, we've still got a good package."

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