Hamilton started the race weekend to recover from a late loss to Verstappen in France last Sunday but struggled to keep up with his pace in practice on Friday.
Hamilton managed to beat FP3 for Mercedes, only Verstappen hit back in qualifying as he drove two laps good enough for pole position and eventually finished two tenths ahead of the field.
Valtteri Bottas finished second for Mercedes but will drop to fifth thanks to a starting penalty, which put Hamilton in the front row despite the Brit’s mistake on his last lap, where he ran far at Turn 10.
Hamilton said after qualifying that he wasn’t sure Mercedes was at the right pace to fight Red Bull in the race, but he was hoping to keep up with Verstappen at the front.
“They were so quick this weekend so we gave absolutely everything,” said Hamilton.
“It wasn’t the best session, but we’re still in the front row after the penalty, so we’ll fight for a fight tomorrow.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, leaves the garage
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“You usually have a quarter of a second on us all weekend. And I think we managed to get closer in qualifying, but in race trim they were mostly a quarter of a second ahead of us yesterday.
“It will be interesting to see if we can do it or not. I don’t think we have the pace to overtake them, that’s for sure. But maybe you can just keep up. “
It was only the third time since the beginning of the V6 hybrid era that Mercedes had been beaten to pole after the success of Williams in 2014 and pole by Ferrari in 2019 at the Red Bull Ring.
Hamilton was unable to win any of the races in the last three races, leaving him 12 points behind Verstappen at the top of the drivers’ standings.
“Of course I’ll give it my all, but I’m only talking about pure pace,” said Hamilton.
“But maybe we will be surprised tomorrow. Maybe it’s raining. Who knows?”
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