Hamilton ‘should have been on pole’ and vows to improve qualifying form

The seven-time world champion qualified fifth while teammate George Russell put his Mercedes on the front-row, just 0.072s shy of pole sitter Carlos Sainz. 

Hamilton gained two positions at the start of Sunday’s race but was forced to return the positions to Russell and McLaren’s Lando Norris after cutting the first corner. 

A bold strategy from Mercedes brought Russell and Hamilton into play for a potential victory late on, but Russell crashed out on the final lap, handing the final spot on the podium to his teammate. 

"It's all in hindsight but I think the thing I was most disappointing with...I mean George was so close to pole yesterday. I should have been on pole yesterday,” Hamilton told Sky after the race. 

"But then we had a good race. The race was kind of textbook. The team did a good job with strategy. 

"I'm in my element in the race. It's just qualifying needs to get better. George was great all weekend.

"As a team, we risked it at the end and took the chance. I love that the team is doing that. It was a big gap to close up. It was definitely hard to overtake those guys at the end of the race.

"Probably needed another 5-10 laps and I think we would have got them.”

Hamilton has been out-qualified by Russell at the last three races and suffered a Q2 elimination at Zandvoort. 

Asked how he can get on top of his recent qualifying troubles, Hamilton replied: "It's clearly not just the car. George was on the front row. 

“It's me, just my driving style, the changes that perhaps I'm making. It's a lot of different things, so I need to look into that.

"I will naturally keep my head down, keep pushing and will not be satisfied until I get back there."