HUNGARORING -- Lewis Hamilton is expecting Ferrari to disappear into the distance at the Hungarian Grand Prix after locking out the front row of the grid.
Despite looking competitive in Q1 and Q2, Mercedes and Red Bull's challenge faded in Q3 as Ferrari showed its true pace with Sebastian Vettel's circuit record lap for pole position. Kimi Raikkonen finished second ahead of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, leaving Hamilton in fourth after a surprisingly below-par performance at one of his most successful circuits.
It ended a run of four straight pole positions for the world champions and Hamilton does not expect Mercedes' fortunes to improve much when the lights go out.
"We were ahead in the last race on that side, but they have generally been quite good," Hamilton said about Ferrari's race pace. "I don't know, I think it's going to be an easy breeze for them tomorrow."
Red Bull was expected to pose a much bigger challenge to both Ferrari and Mercedes this weekend due to the layout of the Hungaroring, but Hamilton thinks Mercedes should be able to stay ahead of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, who occupy the third row.
"I think we were surprised to see Red Bull didn't have the pace that we thought they'd have. We thought Red Bull would be quicker [in qualifying]. Obviously it turns out the Ferrari pulled out the real pace difference to us and as far as I've spoken to them [the engineers] they are not massively concerned and they are more concerned about the Ferraris."