Lewis Hamilton admits he "couldn't reach" George Russell's level at Imola

Lewis Hamilton has conceded that he didn’t have an answer for George Russell’s level of performance in F1 qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Hamilton could only secure eighth on the grid for Sunday’s race at Imola, two spots behind teammate George Russell.

The pair were split by the RB of Yuki Tsunoda as Mercedes’ lacklustre start to the season continued.

Hamilton has been out-qualified by Russell in 11 of the last 12 races as he continues to struggle over one-lap with the W15.

Reflecting on qualifying at Imola, Hamilton admitted he “couldn’t reach” the level of performance Russell was able to, who qualified within a tenth of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

“I think George's lap was the maximum pace wise of what our car could do. I couldn't reach that today,” he said.

“Yesterday was looking strong. But good, positive, to see us pace wise a little bit closer.”

Mercedes’ underwhelming qualifying performance continued a peculiar trend where they fall away pace-wise after impressing in practice.

The seven-time world champion revealed Mercedes “don’t fully understand” why they excel on Fridays this year.

“That's one thing we don't fully understand is like on Friday, we seem a bit quicker and then on Saturday, we seem to lose a little bit time to the others,” he added. “But George was pretty quick out there.

“I think he really got to check the setup this weekend, like he has done most of this this year. For me, it worked differently.”

Assessing his chances in the race, Hamilton hopes to get ahead of Tsunoda quickly before settling in behind the cars ahead.

“Yes, we'll also try and get Tsunoda if we can, that'll be helpful,” he added. “And then after that, I think it's really just about managing the tyres and the cars ahead of George are faster. So that's kind of where we are.”