Lewis Hamilton has revealed George Russell was given the Mercedes' only upgrade for the Monaco Grand Prix after being outqualified by his team-mate for the seventh time this season.
Hamilton is nearing the halfway point of his final season with Mercedes and it's been a year to forget so far.
The seven-time world champion currently sits eighth in the Drivers' Championship and has failed to finish any higher than sixth in a single race.
Russell has also been the better of the two in qualifying and Monaco marked another race weekend where the young British driver managed to finish ahead of his team-mate.
Hamilton had shown good pace during the practice sessions as Mercedes appeared to close the gap to their rivals.
Lewis Hamilton was not given the upgrade this weekend
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However, he was unable to match those ahead of him in the final qualifying session as he ended up seventh.
The 39-year-old admitted to feeling frustrated over his qualifying position, but also revealed that Russell had the benefit of having Mercedes' new front wing upgrade on his car in the latest sign from the team that they're favouring the 26-year-old.
"It felt great yesterday. We have been working really hard to improve this car and from the get-go it felt great," Hamilton said.
"We obviously benefitted yesterday and this morning. We are not making any drastic changes or anything like that.
"The team have worked really hard back at the factory to bring an upgrade to the last two races and also an upgrade this weekend but we only have one, which George has.
"I anticipated it would be difficult to outqualify George because he has the upgraded component but it's great to see we are bringing upgrades.
"Once we got to qualifying, I don't understand. I already know automatically that I'm going to lose two-tenths going into qualifying.
"That's definitely frustrating and something I don't have an answer for.
"I'm not driving any different. The laps were great. Just lacking for some reason."
George Russell has outqualified Lewis Hamilton seven times this season
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Mercedes haven't stated that Russell has upgrade priority now with Hamilton leaving to join Ferrari next year.
Hamilton's main hope for his final few months of the season will be to try and work his way back up the grid as Mercedes' car gradually improves.
And he's seen signs this weekend in Monaco to suggest the team are heading in the right direction.
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He said: “I definitely think we, for some reason, are a lot closer this weekend. It’s really great to see. The car was feeling great, so much better than previous years.
“But still, three-and-a-half tenths is a lot here. And that’s still six tenths elsewhere, so we still are off pace-wise.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing. We will slowly get closer through the year as more upgrades come.
