Hamilton rules out pole

Lewis Hamilton heads into qualifying for the German Grand Prix today believing he does not have a chance of claiming pole position.

Hamilton made the honest assessment following yesterday’s practice sessions at the Nurburgring where McLaren trailed behind not only Red Bull and Ferrari, but also Mercedes.

The 26-year-old was a second adrift of Red Bull’s Mark Webber in the second session, finishing seventh on the timesheet.

Hamilton’s team-mate Jenson Button was 1.7secs off the pace, with his afternoon run hampered by a failure with a new exhaust system and the KERS power-boost device.

“Our race pace is closer than it was at the last grand prix, maybe two or three tenths off the Ferraris, which is good,” said Hamilton.

“But over a single lap they’ve a second on us. We are still pushing as hard as we can, the car’s feeling quite good, but I can’t go any faster.

“We won’t find an answer by today. We’re down on downforce which is the only thing that stops me and Jenson from doing the same laps as them. We just can’t carry the same speed through the corners.

“The race is a different thing. We’ll still see the Ferraris and Red Bulls massively quick, but we expect to be just behind them, and then anything can happen in the race. Who knows with rain?

“But we definitely can’t challenge for pole.”

Hamilton is convinced McLaren will at some point crack their issues and start pushing for top spot on the grid again.

“I have to have faith in my team, have faith in my engineers with the design and developments that are coming through that eventually we will close the gap,” he added.

“We’ve always been known for saying we are one of the best teams at turning things around, and we still believe in that.

“At some stage we will close that gap, but at the moment there is still a bit of a gap as there has been all year.

“Ferrari have closed the gap to the Red Bulls, which means they’ve passed us, but it doesn’t mean it’s over yet.

“I just wish I could take a huge amount of downforce, slap it on the front and rear of my car and then we’d be winning races.”

Button, meanwhile, was left utterly frustrated, describing his day as “one to forget”.

He added: “There’s a lot of work to do before qualifying, and there is a very good chance it could rain, so we have to take that into account.

“Over one lap we’re getting there with the balance, but we’re a lot further away than we thought.

“So it’s whether we can race the top cars. We have to still aim for that, a tough one, a long shot, but we have to try.”