Mercedes blames lack of performance in long corners for Hungary qualifying woes

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg delivered the team's worst qualifying performance of the year with neither driver making it in to Q3 - and their difficulties have left the outfit downbeat about its chances for the race.

Team principal Ross Brawn said neither driver could get their cars handling right for the five 180-degree corners on the Hungaroring.

"We can see the areas of the track where we were struggling was in the 180 degree corners, while on other parts of the track we were OK," explained Brawn.

"We had a balance that made it difficult for the drivers, but they are such long corners and such important corners that they were losing time. And that is the problem we have had all weekend."

He added: "It is a characteristic of the car we have got. We have seen that the car is perhaps strong in slow/medium speed corners generally, but here they are so long that the drivers get to the stage where they get understeer in the car and then have to wait. It is a trend we have seen, and we have to find a better solution."

The handling problems that Schumacher and Rosberg have suffered means that there is little hope the car will be much better in the race.

"If you have a balance that doesn't help the tyres, then if you have a bad qualifying it may not be better in the race. If you have a car that cannot switch on its tyres and is looking after the rears, then it is logical to suggest that you could be in better shape for the race. I am not sure that will be the case for us.

"But I think people are going to run out of tyres at some stage, and it depends what the weather does."