Lewis Hamilton says the performance of his Mercedes Formula 1 car “plateaued” during a “difficult” qualifying session for the Hu𓄧ngarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton had topped both of the dry practice sessions - including final practice on Saturday morning - at the Hungaroring but was unable to challenge Reᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚd Bull driver Max Verstappen for pole position in Q3.

The Briton ended up 0.197s adrift of Verstaꦦppen’s pole ef💫fort and was also outpaced by Mercedes teammate and chief title rival Valtteri Bottas, who missed out on his fifth pole of the season by just 0.018s.

“For me it a difficult qualifying session,” Hamilton admi🐼tted.

“Practice 🦄was going quite well, we knew Red B💟ull was quick, they’re always quick here.

“I think when we got into qualifying, the car wasn’t the same as it was in FP3 and it was just as a bit of a struggle from the beginning and it just kind of plateaued from there and didn’t really get any be🍬tter.

“We will look into it, but nonetheless we’re still in the 🎉fight, and hopefully for the race 𓆏we’ll have better race pace than qualifying.

“It kind of got away from me a little bit once we got into qualifying but still we are in a good position to fight for the win so we’ll just b🌃e pushing hard tomorrow.”

Deไspite lining up third on the grid at a track that is notoriously difficult to overtake at, Hamilton remains optimistic about Mercedes’ chances for race day.

"We’re in a good position in terms of working as a team𒁃,” Hamilton said.

“We’re in a forꩵtunate position potentially if ꦐwe can hold on to Max to be able to work together to give him a bit of a run for his money.

“It’s a little bit harder if you’re on your ow🌼n at the front as yo🎀u can come under attack from undercuts a bit.

“🐭It’s a long run to T1, hopefully a nice battle there, then after that it’s down to team tactics.”