Hamilton: Not the position we want – we 'exist to win'

Lewis Hamilton suggested that he had pretty much extracted the most from his equipment in qualifying on Friday in Baku, the Mercedes driver clocking in P5 but almost a full second off poleman Charles Leclerc.

The Briton was outpaced by both Red Bulls and both Ferraris, but at least outperformed his Mercedes teammate George Russell, who somewhat surprisingly failed to make the Q3 shootout, and both Aston martin cars.

Hamilton insisted the Brackley squad and himself are giving it their all, but his best effort just wasn't enough to put him in the mix in qualifying.

"We are trying as hard as we can, giving it absolutely everything out there," said Hamilton.

"Timing and getting into a rhythm and really pulling out everything is not easy on this track. In Q2, I struggled, I had more pace, I just didn't get that last lap.

"My Q3 run one was a really sweet lap, just unfortunately... I just matched it basically at the end but needed just a little more time to nip [ahead] of the Ferrari."
Hamilton reckoned that, all things considered, fifth on Sunday's grid wasn't a bad place to start.

"We can't make any changes to the car so this is the pace that we have," he added.

• 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Qualifying Results

"So I might be able to eke a little more out if we can do some studying tonight, but this is a good position to start from on Sunday.

"Naturally, this is not the position we want as a team - we exist to win, everyone has that winning mindset and everyone is working as hard as we can.

"We haven't had an upgrade this weekend but we are working towards one that hopefully will put us closer to the battle ahead."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff revealed that the German outfit had managed to put its car "in a good window", but admitted its W14 is no match for Ferrari's "outstanding" SF-23 in Baku's "twisty bits".

"It is confusing with the times, but we are struggling," Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after qualifying.

"The margins are so tiny behind the top three, so we need to do out of it.

"We are losing [time] in three corners - we are pretty matched with Leclerc and Verstappen in the first two corners, and then the middle sector, the twisty bits, the Ferraris are outstanding.

"We have the car in a good window, it is just generally the car is not stable for the drivers and doesn't have enough load.

"We haven't put any upgrades on the car, that will come for Imola, so we need to make the best out of this package."

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