Hamilton, Mercedes, Styria — Photo: © LAT Images

Austrian Grand Prix

Hamilton rules Austrian GP win "out of the question" as Verstappen will "cruise"

Hamilton will start fourth for the Austrian Grand Prix

Sam Hall

Saturday 3 July 2021 16:50

Lewis Hamilton has ruled victory in the Austrian Grand Prix to be "out of the question" after only qualifying fourth at the Red Bull Ring.

Ahead of this race, Hamilton had only started just once outside the top three in the previous eight events and had been off the front row on just two occasions.

After the second of the back-to-back races in Austria, Hamilton trailed polesitter and championship rival Max Verstappen by 0.294secs, with McLaren's Lando Norris and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez separating the duo.

Asked if the win was out of the question in Sunday's race, Hamilton said: "I would say so yeah.

"In terms of pure pace, it is definitely out of the question. Those guys [Red Bull], firstly, have got two cars in front and they've got three-tenths [of a second on us].

"They've improved their car again this weekend so I would say that is an easy cruise win for Max.

"For us, it is to see if we can get ahead of at least Perez and try to limit the damage this weekend."

Mercedes "tried everything"

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Hamilton finished second in last weekend's Styrian Grand Prix and spent time in the simulator during the week as Mercedes sought to find answers to Red Bull's pace.

Despite the searching, Hamilton fears Mercedes has slipped further back.

"[It is] even more of a challenge than it was already last week," added Hamilton, who has signed a new two-year Mercedes deal.

"We continue to lack pace. We tried everything to get more out of the car and it is just the underlying pace. That is where we are at at the moment.

"So we have got to really find performance in the following races. I don't know if McLaren has brought an upgrade but they were mega-quick so great job from Lando and we've just got to try and improve."