Lewis Hamilton was left to rue what he described as ‘very bad laps’ after finishing sixth in the sprint shootout at the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday.

Mercedes looked to have carried their momentum from Barcelona into the weekend in Spielberg, demonstrating impressive pace on the hard compound tyre. However, this did not translate into sprint shootout performance.

On a personal level, Hamilton’s session was a messy one. The legendary Brit ran off the track at the start of the session, forcing him to run off sequence to his rivals before eventually punching in the sixth-fastest time in SQ3.

Assessing his sprint shootout session, he said: “I wasn’t in the mix at all, the whole session was pretty disastrous from our point. Practice was good, the car felt good, I don’t think we had the pace to be on pole, but very bad laps.

“I don’t think overtaking is mega here, but we’ll give our best. It’s usually not such an eventful race, so I think the focus will be mostly on getting a better qualifying tomorrow.”

While Hamilton was frustrated with a P6 starting grid slot, his team-mate was slightly more satisfied. George Russell ended the sprint shootout in P4 with only Max Verstappen and the two McLaren cars ahead of him.

“My SQ3 lap felt really strong,” Russell said on Friday. “I was probably surprised at the gap probably over-egged it on my out lap and took too much life out of the tyres and probably took that peak grip out of it.

“That’s the only explanation I’ve got because the lap felt strong, probably the best lap of the session. It was quite a step backwards. P4 is still a great place to be for the fight tomorrow. Definitely fighting for the podium in the Sprint.

“Obviously, eyes on the main race is the most important thing. But, validation again that we are in the mix now. Probably a bit ahead of Ferrari at the moment but McLaren are still a small smidge ahead but it’s nice to be at the front end a bit more consistently.”