Hamilton: Mercedes lacking ‘raw pace’ to overtake Red Bull in F1 Styrian GP

Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton doubts Mercedes has the “raw pace” to take the fight to Red Bull in the Styrian Grand Prix.
(L to R): Max Verstappen (
(L to R): Max Verstappen (
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Hamilton had no answer to title rival Max Verstappen’s speed in q𓆏ualifying in Spielberg as the R🅠ed Bull driver stormed to his third pole position of the season in commanding style.

The seven-time world champion made a mistake on his final Q3 run and ended up 0.226s down on Verstappen’s benchmark, while he was also out🌞paced by Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

But Hamilton will join Verstappen on the fro♍nt row after Bottas’ three-pl🤪ace grid drop for his practice spin is applied.

“They have been so fast this weekend, 🀅been giving it absolutely everything and it🤡 just wasn’t the greatest of sessions,” Hamilton said.

“But nevertheless, it’s still the front row obviously after the penalty. I did everything we could, so we’re going to race tomorrow♋ for a 𒅌fight.

“Generally they had a quarter of a second on us a🌳ll weekend, and I think we have managed to ek✃e closer in qualifying but in race trim yesterday, they were one-quarter of a second ahead of us most of the time.

“It will be interesting to see if we can manage it. I don’t thin꧑k we have raw pace to overtake them, that’s for sure, but we might just be able to keep up.”

Hamilton has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix in May, while Red Bull heads into Sunday’s race in Austria off the back of a hat-trick of victories, with Verstappen looking to conve🥀rt pole into his fourth win of 2021 in Austria.

“I am going to be giving it e🌠verything obvi𝓀ously, but I’m just talking about pure pace,” Hamilton added.

“But maybe tom💮orrow we will be surpr൩ised, maybe it rains. Who knows?”

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