Hamilton missed out: 'Red Bull was too far ahead, so that was unfortunate'

For Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, the Grand Prix weekend in Baku is by no means going smoothly so far. The W14 is struggling with a lack of speed, losing a lot of time on the straights compared to Red Bull Racing and Ferrari. Therefore, the Brit fears there is little he can do to move forward during the sprint race.

Despite Hamilton and teammate George Russell being unable to match the times of the front-runners, Hamilton said he was not dissatisfied with the result of the sprint shootout. "The sessions were going really well, actually. Q1 and Q1 were going well. I just struggled with the rear end on the last lap," the 38-year-old Briton told GPblog.com and others.

Again, Hamilton missed out on an advantage he would have liked on his flying lap. "I didn't get a tow at the end. The Red Bulls fell too far ahead, so a bit unfortunate, but I gave it everything, and that's all you can ever ask for."

The Mercedes driver hopes to make progress in the sprint race, but fears there is little he can do in that short time. "It's only 17 laps, so not a massive amount that you can do, I would assume, in that time. But, I hope that we get some sort of race this afternoon," Hamilton said.