Lewis Hamilton admits he’s struggling with his Mercedes and says has been upstaged by his teammate George Russell

LEWIS HAMILTON admits he is struggling to wring the most out of his Mercedes and claims he has been upstaged by his teammate George Russell.

Hamilton, 39, has decided to quit Mercedes at the end of this season to join Ferrari in a bid to help him win an eighth world championship.

Lewis Hamilton admitted he is struggling with his Mercedes carGetty

Hamilton claims he is being upstaged by Mercedes team-mate George RussellGetty

The British legend is without a win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP and could only qualify in 11th for the Australian GP while Russell was quick enough for seventh.

It is the third race in a row where Russell has been the fastest of the two teammates and Hamilton said: “I don’t know if I’m dealing with it that great. I mean, [I am] less consistent than George.

“George is doing a better job with our car, three qualifyings in a row that he’s out-qualified me. He just seems to get on a lot better than I do.

“I’m just trying to keep my head above water and just continue to realise how it could be way worse.

“It felt great in P3. It was strange because we were right there with these guys and we didn’t really understand why.

“But then going into qualifying just the inconsistency within the car really messes with the mind.

“But George did a good job today. It is what it is. I just have to try and do a better job tomorrow.

“In the afternoon here, the wind picks up. It’s the same as P2: P1 was a bit better and then when the wind picks up, the car becomes a lot more unstable.

“This morning was nice with the calmer wind and then as soon as the wind picks up it gets a little bit stable.

“But the others seem to be able to pick their pace up in qualifying.

“I’m not sure why it didn’t feel the same in qualifying, even though we had a lighter fuel [load], it felt better in P3.

“So it’s not a great feeling for everyone on the team, but we’ll just keep working away.”

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Meanwhile, Max Verstappen took pole position while his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was third.

Carlos Sainz, who had appendicitis and missed the last race in Saudi Arabia, qualified in second place in his Ferrari.

Verstappen said: “I think both of those laps felt really, really nice and that was very enjoyable.

“It was a bit of a tricky weekend so far but we managed to get there in the end, so I’m very happy with that.

“Ferrari seem very quick also in the long runs, so a bit of a question mark for tomorrow, but I guess that makes it very exciting, so we’ll find out tomorrow.”