Lewis Hamilton missed out on F1 pole shot with Q3 error - Wolff

Hamilton went off the circuit at Turn 4, aborting the lap to leave himself with only one attempt in the pole position-deciding session, where he ended up fourth.

"Throughout qualifying we improved and I think we would have been in the fight for pole position," Wolff told Sky Sports.

"But obviously the mistake in the second to last lap compromised Lewis's final run. So I'm actually OK [about Mercedes' performance]."

Hamilton complained throughout the session about tyre vibrations, although he did set the fastest time in Q2.

Wolff accepted that the tyres "were not in a perfect state" for the aborted first Q3 run, and said the team would have to analyse the problem.

Hamilton fears he is going to spend the race being unable to make progress, due to the tight nature of the Hungaroring circuit.

"You can't overtake here. It's most likely going to be a train unless we can do something with strategy," he said to TV crews after the session.

"Getting past the Ferraris is going to be an almost impossible task, unless they have problems.

"We shall see, we'll give everything we can and at least get some points."

Wolff reckons the best chance for his team lies with the start of the race, with Valtteri Bottas starting one spot ahead of Hamilton in third.

"It [overtaking] is very difficult," said Wolff. "The start is the best possibility to jump them, the run down to the first turn is very long.

"Strategy wise I guess there is not a lot of possibilities."