Hungarian GP: Lewis Hamilton stunned to deny Sebastian Vettel pole

He now suspects staying at the front of the field for the race will be a big ask.

The Mercedes driver stormed to a last-gasp pole position with a 1m19.388s on his last lap, enough to knock heavy favourite Vettel off top spot.

According to Hamilton, his fourth pole of the season came as a shock.

"I was really surprised when they said I was on pole," he explained.

"I was expecting Seb to get it because he had shown serious pace before - that is why I was surprised."

Hamilton added that while pole was a good result, his Mercedes' poor long-run pace could make life hard for him and the team in the race.

"It's great to have pole but doesn't mean much for the race," he said. "It will be tough tomorrow and that is the way it is.

"It is a shame that we have got a good car, and if we didn't have a tyre issue we would be able to compete.

"We will do the best we can tomorrow. We will just try and get as many points as we can."

POLE LAP 'DIDN'T FEEL VERY GOOD'

Despite widespread surprise that he denied Vettel pole, Hamilton downplayed the quality of his lap.

He believes he gave away a couple of tenths of a second.

"It really didn't feel like a good lap," he admitted when asked by AUTOSPORT how he rated his pole.

"It looked like a reasonably tidy lap but it didn't feel good so I thought it wasn't good enough. I'm delighted that it was.

"I don't feel like I made any mistakes, I just don't feel like I extracted the most from the lap.

"With the time we did it was great but I really feel that there's a lot more in the car, I feel like I could have had another couple of tenths or so."