Hamilton: "I would say the win is out of the question" for Austrian GP

Lewis Hamilton announced the signing of his new Mercedes contract on Saturday morning, but come Saturday afternoon the seven-time World Champion was beaten by Red Bull's Max Verstappen for the second week running in Austria. The 36-year-old believes the win is "out of the question" in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix. 

"I would say the win is out of the question on pure pace. We've got two cars to get by, and they've got two-tenths on us. I would say that's an easy cruise win for Max. For us, we can see if we can get ahead of at least Perez and try to limit the damage this weekend," Hamilton told Sky Sports after qualifying. 

Further away

Last weekend, Hamilton was beaten by Verstappen but came second. After a week of hard work on the simulator, the British driver is now further down the grid for Sunday's race. He has to negotiate Lando Norris who starts in P2 for McLaren. Hamilton believes he has a bigger challenge on his hands after trying to close the gap. 

"Yeah, even more of a challenge than it was last week. We continue to lack pace, we tried everything to get more out of the car. That's where we are at. We've got to find performance in the following races. I don't know if McLaren have an upgrade but they were mega quick today. So great job from Lando, we have just got to try and improve," Hamilton added.