Hamilton “will give it everything” to fight Verstappen - but he may "disappear"

Hamilton secured third on the grid for Sunday’s race after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had their best lap times deleted for track limits.

It means Mercedes will have two cars in the top three for the first time since Australia, where they qualified second and third behind Verstappen.

After qualifying, Hamilton was asked who he expects to be battling on Sunday.

He replied: “With everyone around me.”

The interviewer then suggested that Hamilton didn’t mean Verstappen - who was sitting right next to him at the time.

Hamilton quickly interjected: “No, I am battling the guy to the right of me that’s for sure. I think yeah, I will give it everything to try and fight him and maybe like George said, maybe he will just disappear but we will see how the race is but maybe we will be able to fight.”

While Hamilton enjoyed one of his best qualifying results of F1 2023, he was nearly knocked out in Q1.

The seven-time world champion admitted Mercedes’ inconsistent form can be “confusing”, describing his qualifying as a whole as “relatively average”.

“It’s always confusing because we were nearly out of Q1, which is incredibly frustrating in that moment, but then we get into Q2 and all of a sudden we’re right up there,” he added. “So it’s very, very strange. 

“But it’s really great for all the team for us to be up there and George did a great job today. So for us to be so close is pretty awesome. 

“I mean, for me, it was a relatively average qualifying session – Q1 and Q3 particularly. I was able to put together the lap but it came too early, in Q2 so I wish I had that for Q3.”