Lewis Hamilton says his McLaren team is in for a very difficult weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, the world champion admitting he is not confident ahead of the Barcelona race.
Hamilton finished in 13th position in this afternoon's qualifying session, and the Briton said that was the best he could have done with his car.
"That is our true pace, as you just saw," Hamilton told reporters after Friday practice. "It is going to be a tough one for sure."
The McLaren driver, who finished in fourth in the last race in Bahrain, said the Sakhir circuit's performance had been misleading, and reckons Barcelona is showing his car's real deficits.
Hamilton admitted his team's pace was worse than he had expected.
"That is what I said coming into the weekend and it is even worse than I expected," Hamilton said when asked if Bahrain had flattered his car.
The Briton said the modifications done to his car for the Spanish race had simply not worked, and claimed McLaren was not hiding anything in practice.
"I wish we were, but we are not. We are pushing but unfortunately we tried some upgrades and they are not working for me," he said.
"There has been no improvement to the car whatsoever."
Brawn has secured a high-profile tie-up at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix to promote the new Terminator Salvation film.
The cars of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will feature imagery from the new film on their rear wings at the Circuit de Catalunya, ahead of his release in the United States on May 21.
The deal is for this race only, and comes a few years after the last Terminator film, T3 Rise of the Machines, was promoted by Jaguar Racing at the 2003 British Grand Prix.
Brawn GP CEO Nick Fry said: "We are thrilled to be supporting Sony Pictures Releasing International with the launch of Terminator Salvation at this weekend¹s Spanish Grand Prix.
"Our promotional partnership will see our race cars and our garage branded with the famous Terminator imagery as we help launch one of Hollywood's biggest movies of the year to over 580 million Formula One viewers in over 90 countries.
"The Terminator brand promises exciting action and high drama as machines and human ingenuity battle for supremacy. It's a perfect match for Brawn GP and Formula 1."