Lewis Hamilton puts target on Max Verstappen after Mercedes surprise

Lewis Hamilton has his sights set on beating Max Verstappen in the Australian Grand Prix after Mercedes stunned the field. The Silver Arrows had struggled to match the pacesetters throughout free practice but turned on the style in qualifying. 

Hamilton was quick enough for P3 while team-mate George Russell just pipped him to second place. However, Hamilton was not concerned about losing out to Russell as he sniffed a chance of victory on Sunday. 

He said: “This is a totally unexpected. Really proud of the team. George did an amazing job there today so for us to be up on the front two rows in honestly a dream for us.

“We are all working as hard as we can to get right back up to the front so to be this close to Red Bull is incredible. Hopefully tomorrow we can give them a run for their money and we hope the weather is good. 

“I am super grateful for this position and I am just going to work as hard as I can tomorrow. (My goal) is to get to first.”

Russell was just two-tenths slower than Verstappen in Q3 with Hamilton three-tenths behind his former title rival. The result will come as a blow to Fernando Alonso who has appeared the second-fastest throughout the weekend until the final sessions. 

Laying out his game plan for the race, Hamilton revealed he would look to repeat his podum success on his F1 debut. He added: “I am going to try and see and I will be hoping like my first day here 2007, Turn One.

“I don’t know if anybody remembers but hopefully we can do that.” Russell was also optimistic after the session and shared Hamilton’s assertions that the team had the performance to challenge at the sharp end. 

The former Williams star even claimed he believed the German manufacturer could have battled for P1 despite the team’s self-proclaimed pace disadvantage to Red Bull.

He commented: “A lot of hard work going on at the factory, here in Melbourne and wow, what a session for us. The car felt alive, the lap at the end was right on the limit and to be honest I’m a little bit disappointed that we didn’t get pole position.

“It’s one of those things where your expectations change so quickly in this sport. We would have been happy with a top four, top five yesterday. The car felt awesome and we’ve definitely got potential still to come.”