Hamilton: "We went in knowing that it was going to be very tight"

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that Mercedes knew all along that it was going to be very close when it came to qualifying in Brazil, but conceded they just didn't quite have the pace to match the leaders.

Hamilton qualified in third for the Brazilian Grand Prix, behind Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel, the prior taking his second career pole position. The Brit will be joined on the second row by his teammate, Valtteri Bottas who benefitted from Charles Leclerc's penalty.

After qualifying, Hamilton admitted that qualifying was expected to be a battle but revealed they were losing out on the straights.

"It was a challenging qualifying session," Hamilton told the Mercedes website.