Hamilton angered by 'very bad laps'

Lewis Hamilton was a frustrated figure after sprint qualifying ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, with the Briton describing his session as "disastrous". 

The seven-time world champion entered the outing having shown good pace in practice at the Red Bull Ring, where he finished P5. 

However, Hamilton's sprint qualifying was messy straight from SQ1 and was close to facing an early elimination. 

Nevertheless, the Mercedes driver wrestled his W15 into SQ3, where he again struggled to put a clean lap together, with his best effort resulting in sixth.

"I wasn't in the mix at all," said a frustrated Hamilton. "The whole session was pretty disastrous from my point of view.

"What can I say? Practice felt good, the car generally felt good. I don't think we had the pace to be on pole. Very bad laps, every one of them."

Hamilton shifts focus to F1 qualifying

Looking ahead to the second day of on-track action, Hamilton is not overly optimistic about the sprint race, which has proven in the past to be a difficult event to overtake in. 

Qualifying closer to the front after the sprint is Hamilton's primary objective.

"Who knows - I don't think overtaking is mega here but we'll give it our best," stated Hamilton.

"It's usually not such an eventful race so the focus will mostly be on getting a better qualifying."