McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton admitted that he found it "insane" to watch how fast the Red Bull cars were driving around the Hungaroring circuit, claiming that his McLaren is working better than ever despite only taking fifth on the grid.
Hamilton and the McLaren team continue to lead both championships, but they have struggled to get on the pace in Hungary, limping to fifth on the grid and ending up nearly two seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel's pole time.
And after the session he admitted that the McLaren team had slipped some way behind the Red Bulls.
"For us it's not case of a tenth or two here and there. It's a second in the middle sector and half a second in the last sector," Hamilton lamented.
"We look at the onboard footage and we just laugh. That's just insane how fast they are going."
He added: "Our car is the best is it has ever been. I don't know what the hell they are doing, but it's incredible the pace they have here."
As for his own performance, the typically modest Hamilton insisted that his lap had been the absolute best he could have hoped to get out of the car, and had still left him behind both Red Bulls and both Ferraris.
"I'm happy with today's result. I was relieved to get into Q3 - it was very close – and I feel I pulled every last drop out of the car. So I'm satisfied with the job we did today," he shrugged.
"Obviously, we'll have to work hard again tomorrow – but, all things considered, it's a good place for us to be starting from tomorrow: it's on the clean side of the track, which is a positive, and it's a long haul down to Turn One. So anything's possible. As I say, I'm quite happy."
He added that he would look to make up places at the start for the race itself, saying: "We'll stay focused for tomorrow: I need to get as good a start as I've been getting for the past few races, stay clean, get around the first corner and keep moving forwards after that.
"It would be great to make up some places off the grid because it's very hard to overtake around here. But we'll do the best job we can. I'm ready for it. Bring it on!"
His team mate Jenson Button had an even worse qualifying session, finishing just 11th on the grid after being knocked out in Q2.
"In practice the car was working really well, but in qualifying I just couldn't find a balance," he mourned.
"We changed the car a little bit, but it didn't help a lot. The weather changed a bit [from practice]. I was happy with the car this morning, but this afternoon there was just no grip. It wasn't a great session and I'm not really happy."
He added that he was still hopeful of scoring good points in the race, saying: "I'm on the clean side [of the grid] at least, and I've got two new sets of tyres for the race as well. Hopefully we can fight from there."
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