• German Grand Prix - Qualifying

Timing of fast lap let McLaren down - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton was one of the first drivers to start his final qualifying lap at Hockenheim © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• German Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton said both McLarens went out too early in the final session of qualifying for the German Grand Prix and started their final flying lap at the wrong time as a result.

Hamilton will start from seventh on Sunday but was 3.5s slower than Fernando Alonso on pole as the track dried lap-by-lap in the top-ten shootout. Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button, who qualified sixth, were the first out of the pits in Q3 and were the first to start their final flying lap as a result.

"I'm disappointed with the end result, of course," Hamilton said. "But we were looking good in Q1 and in the dry and then we were looking good in Q2, but at the end I don't understand how everyone went that much quicker. But I think we were a little bit unfortunate as well. Jenson and I were the first two out and we started our last laps first and the track just kept getting better and better. I guess the guys further back were going to get better laps - even if we had done a very good lap the track would have got faster. It's a tough one but we'll see what we can do tomorrow."

Hamilton said he was still a little bit confused by the gap to the car's ahead, but is confident he will be able to switch it around in the race.

"We're not starting in a very good position and we were four seconds off in qualifying and we don't understand why because it was looking pretty good up until it started getting a bit drier. I'm not sure what we did wrong. Tomorrow is going to be a tough race because it always is but I plan to hunt down everyone that's in front of me."

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