Lewis Hamilton insists his Ferrari team are “making progress” despite missing out on pole position at the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton, who was in the running for pole in his first Silverstone weekend as a Ferrari driver, made an error in the final corner of his final lap in qualifying and ultimately finished fifth-fastest.
Max Verstappen took a surprise pole for Red Bull, beating the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to top spot.
Yet Hamilton, who has not qualified in the top three all season, was upbeat in the media pen afterwards.
“I'm really pleased with the progress and with the direction,” he said. “My engineer and I have been really gelling a lot better in terms of how we set the car up, and I'm much happier in the car.
“The lap was really nice right up until the last corner, I had a little bit of understeer. I don't know if it was the kerb, but I just lost it. It cost me just over a tenth so that would definitely have put me on the front row.
"We are making progress. There's still more to make but we had the upgrade in the last race and we are improving our process, the way we go about our weekends. I definitely feel like we're pushing to have better results.”
Hamilton is a nine-time winner at Silverstone and won last year’s entertaining grand prix, which included a period of rain. Wet weather is on the forecast for Sunday.
"I just want to be in the fight,” he added. “I don't know which one is best [hot track or rain].
"I'm not even going to bother thinking about it. I'll get some good rest tonight and I'll come and attack as best as I can tomorrow. Little bit far behind where we want to be.
"It's been amazing, to be in the red car here and to see Brits shift from the outfits that I had previously and now to red with the Ferrari badge has been pretty amazing. The support has been incredible.
Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc will start in sixth, while George Russell will line up in fourth for Mercedes.
