Hamilton outlines Ferrari's best chance of beating Mercedes to Austrian GP victory

Lewis Hamilton hopes that he and Ferrari team-mate will be able to work together to triumph over Mercedes at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix. 

When racing for Mercedes, especially during his dominant spell alongside Valtteri Bottas, the team would use its two cars to force rivals into a no-win scenario, where they were forced to cover one car or the other, with Bottas often acting as a roadblock to open a window for Hamilton to make either an undercut or overcut plan work. 

When facing a team with only one driver at the sharp end, this has historically proven to be a significant advantage. But even with Mercedes having Kimi Antonelli in fourth place, Ferrari will hope to have at least one car ahead of George Russell into Turn 1 due to their impressive starts. 

"This weekend, we’ve not been confident that we could fight for a win," said Hamilton. "These guys have been six-tenths quicker than us most of the weekend. We closed the gap overnight by three-tenths, but we still are three-tenths down today, or two-and-a-bit tenths. 

"It’s going to be very tough to challenge them tomorrow, but with a long run down to Turn 3, hopefully together we can. 

"It’s great having Charles here as well, because we can hopefully work together on a strategy and try to apply pressure to them."

Hamilton had just one run in Q3, after running wide at Turn 3 on his first attempt before being told he couldn't continue for another lap due to a lack of fuel. 

Asked whether he could have been closer with two clean attempts, he conceded: "I don’t know whether we could do the same time as those guys. 

"They’ve been quick all weekend, so congrats to George. But otherwise, you know, it’s amazing to be up here with Charles. I think it’s such a great showing for Ferrari, and it really is a reflection of the hard work that everyone’s been putting in back at the factory. 

"We got the new upgrade this weekend on the engine, which is a slight step forward. Then we also brought a couple of little pieces on the car, so every weekend it’s really great to see them pushing so much and just continuing to bring these pieces. 

"You can tell they’re hungry and they’re pushing, which I’m really proud of, and that’s why we’re up here and as close as we are. Yesterday we were like six tenths off in a straight line, and somehow today we’re closer. So yeah, unfortunately, the weekend had been pretty good. 

"This morning in P3, I felt good with the laps, and then got to qualifying and struggled a little bit more with the balance, particularly on the brakes. And then Q3, made a mistake in Turn 1 and then Turn 3, and lost that lap. That really pushed me on the back foot, naturally, because you’ve got to squeeze out a lap. So given that I missed that first lap, I’m pretty happy with that."

Leclerc doesn't regret leaving a margin on F1 pole effort

Leclerc looked like he had scored a first pole position of the season after Max Verstappen crashed at Turn 9, with confusion following as it was widely expected that double-waved yellows would be used to cover the incident.

Had this been the case, Ferrari would have scored a one-two in the Saturday session, but an eagle-eyed Russell noticed that only single-waved yellows were on display, leaving him free to simply lift off into the corner, before continuing to push on.

"Honestly, it wasn’t a very special lap," said Leclerc of his second-place effort.

"It’s the kind of laps where, yeah, as I said, I just wanted a clean qualifying, I just wanted a clean lap. And so, when you are in this mindset, maybe you leave a little bit of margin on the table. But I don’t regret it because I wouldn’t have beaten George anyway. So yeah, second is the best we could do today."