Lewis Hamilton spies Austrian GP opportunity: 'Well, Max isn't there'

Lewis Hamilton has vowed to take action on Sunday in his bid to finally end his podium drought with Ferrari.

Heading into the Austrian Grand Prix, it is the first time in Hamilton's stellar career that he has started the first 10 races of a season without finishing in the top three.

Hamilton's previous worst record was last season when he opened the campaign with Mercedes with nine podium-less results before finishing third in Canada.

For the race at the Red Bull Ring, the seven-time F1 champion will start fourth on the grid, his best qualifying performance since joining Ferrari at the start of the year. Previously he had managed fifth in China, Spain and Canada.

Hamilton still faces a fight given the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are ahead of him, with the pair sandwiching his team-mate, Charles Leclerc, in second.

Reflecting on his performance, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Hamilton said: "I'm grateful I'm on the second row at least, and our car is better in the race generally than it usually is in qualifying, so we've improved in qualifying this weekend. Let's hope that we can carry that over to the race."

As to whether he could finally score a podium with the Scuderia, referencing his drought between race wins before he finally won last year's British Grand Prix, Hamilton said: "It feels like that 900-odd days thing with the win. Hopefully it won't take 900 days.

"The last few races I've said, 'Yeah, I can't wait to get that podium'. So I'm not going to say it. I'm just going to put myself towards action, rather than words."

There was also a playful dig at long-time rival Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver struggled on the team's home soil, and will line up three places behind Hamilton in seventh.

Asked if there was an opportunity of a strong result if he kept out of trouble, Hamilton said: "I mean, Max isn't up there," before chuckling. "I won't be bumping into anybody, that's for sure."

Hamilton edging closer to Lecler

Following a difficult Friday for Ferrari, the worry was the new floor introduced for this weekend had not delivered the improvement in performance that had been expected or hoped for.

But with overnight improvements on the car, Leclerc and Hamilton delivered, with the latter also praising the team for what he said was its "best qualifying process operationally" this season that also made a difference.

Hamillton at least feels he has taken a positive step in the right direction.

"Setup wise, I'm finally getting much closer to where Charles has the car, for example, which I've not been able to do all year," he said. 

"Ultimately I was as fast as him. This is as close as I've been because he's very quick at qualifying and, again, he's just so used to this car. He hardly ever changes anything, so that's a positive. So, incremental steps. I do anticipate to continue on this road and eventually switch it."

Hamilton feels he could have even have out-qualified Leclerc, who finished just 0.090s ahead.

"I had more time in the lap," he said. "I was nearly three tenths up going into Turn 6, and I had a massive snap going in.

"And then I came across the line, point zero six up, so that would have put me second. So there are positives in it, for sure."