Lewis Hamilton "off the pace" at Austrian GP practice

Lewis Hamilton won the drivers' championship in 2008, 2014 and 2015

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton admitted he was struggling and "way off the pace" in Friday practice at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Hamilton heads into Sunday's race 24 points behind team-mate Nico Rosberg in the championship and in need of a good result to revive his title hopes.

But the world champion said: "I'm not that quick, to be honest, but tomorrow I hope I can pick up the pace.

"Nico is much, much quicker today. I have to try to find that."

Hamilton ended the second session on Friday just 0.019 seconds slower than Rosberg but the times were incomparable because the German set his at the beginning of the session and Hamilton at the end, after the track had dried following a torrential downpour.

When the two were out together at the beginning of the session before the rain, Rosberg was 1.2secs quicker than Hamilton, who was using a harder tyre which is in the region of 0.5-0.6secs slower.

Hamilton had been 0.357secs slower than the German in first practice, during which he had a spin.

Hamilton finished second in the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix - one place behind team-mate Nico Rosberg

Hamilton added that Saturday morning's final practice session ahead of qualifying would be "about trying to get into a rhythm as soon as possible and make the laps count".

But Rosberg said he still expected a tough challenge from Hamilton in qualifying, which starts at 13:00 BST on Saturday.

"Lewis didn't really get his laps together so he didn't really show what he can do," he said.