OMNISPORT

Lewis Hamilton knows he faces an uphill battle to limit the damage at the German Grand Prix after a hydraulic fault ended his qualifying hopes early.

The Mercedes driver – who signed a new contract on Thursday – was lapping well in the opening stages at Hockenheim, but in the final minutes of Q1 his day fell apart. Having taken Turn 8 very wide the Briton was forced out of his Silver Arrows two corners later as the W09 lost power.

Hamilton tried in vain to get his car back to the pits but it proved too much and he was forced out before Q2, meaning he will start Sunday's race in 14th.

Championship rival Sebastian Vettel rubbed salt into Hamilton's wounds by snatching pole with a new lap record, and catching the German - who leads the standings by eight points - will not be easy.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, Hamilton said: "It definitely was a tough one but these things happen and all you can do is try and gather your thoughts and live to fight another day, another opportunity to rise, so I'll give everything tomorrow to see how high I can get up but it's not going to be like Silverstone. I'm sure I'll be able to get through to some point, but to where I don't know."

Hamilton remained unsure exactly why his car encountered problems, and seemed to contradict the thoughts of team boss Toto Wolff – who cited his driver's Turn 8 problems as the cause of the fault. 

"The issue was that we seemed to have damaged a bit of the car jumping over a kerb that caused a hydraulic leak, but the car is just coming back so we need to check whether that was really the case," Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

However, Hamilton added: "Just before the curb I think the steering broke so I think that's the issue."