Hamilton plans “tough discussions” after Mercedes ‘completely missed the ball’

Hamilton suffered his worst qualifying result since the 2018 German Grand Prix as he ended up seventh on the grid, seven-tenths down on polesitter Charles Leclerc.

The seven-time world champion struggled for grip throughout final practice and qualifying in Saturday’s cooler conditions, while he also was unhappy with the balance of his Mercedes W12.

“Today was a question of tyres, the tyres just not working and sliding around,” said Hamilton.

“There will be some tough discussions that I’ll have with my engineers, tonight or maybe after the weekend, as there are things that should have been done which haven’t been done. We’ll learn from it and come together stronger in the next race.”

Asked to expand on what he meant, Hamilton replied: "I can’t really no. But as I said, from my point it’s a little frustrating, but it is what it is.

“I can’t really say too much about it. Also I don’t’ want to be critical of team, but behind closed doors, I will be. We’ve got to work harder.”

Hamilton revealed the Mercedes did “lots of changes to the car” after a “disaster” of an FP3, but admitted they only ended up making things worse in qualifying.

“[It was] completely [the] wrong direction, [we] completely missed the ball,” he added.

“Then we made some changes to try and take steps backward and move the car into a different place and the car was worse than ever. I think we really lost our way on Thursday.”

Hamilton conceded victory in the Monaco GP is “out of reach” and is targeting damage limitation with his title rival Max Verstappen due to start from second on the grid.

“It’s near, almost impossible to overtake,” he said.

“From where we are it's pretty much the case, when everyone's on the same speed.

“Saturday is the day so obviously that really does put for sure the win out of reach, but I guess the minimum will be hopefully seventh.

“Then we've got to try and somehow see how we can move forward.”