Although Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton were only a few tenths adrift of pole position as they locked out the second row, Ferrari's consistently strong form throughout Saturday suggests it should be just as quick in the race too.

And Hamilton has no doubts that Ferrari will be fully in control of proceedings at a venue where overtaking is notoriously difficult.

"They have generally been quite good," he said in reference to Ferrari's race form. "I think it is going to be an easy breeze for them tomorrow."

While Mercedes' fortunes in Hungary have not been helped by the tight and twisty layout suiting the Ferrari better, Hamilton reckons that talk there was potential to beat the Maranello outfit is wide of the mark.

"I don't there was any moment that we had the shot on pole. We couldn't match the Ferrari's time today," he said.

"It looks like their car maybe just suits the track more; it looks like the car isn't moving anywhere. It looks like they might have more downforce on, and they were able to apply that in Monaco as well."

While Hamilton conceded that things were not helped by him to having to deliver his Q3 effort with a single run at the end – having gone wide on his first attempt – he thinks that trying to keep up with Ferrari meant he was having to push his car much harder than he would have liked.

"When you drive it to a certain limit the car feels fine, but then you see Ferrari's time, you think you need to push further," he said.

"So you drive 100 percent and the car is more on a knife edge. You are taking it into places you don't want to go."