McLaren may be leading both Championship battles but Lewis Hamilton insists Saturday's qualifying has proven they are only the third quickest team.
Despite debuting - or perhaps because of it - their new blown diffuser exhaust in qualifying for the German GP, Hamilton and his team-mate Jenson Button failed to match the pace of the Red Bulls and Ferraris.
In keeping with this year's tradition, which has only been broken once and by Hamilton himself, Red Bull clinched pole position in Germany while Ferrari finally came the fore, taking the fight to the Bulls.
That, though, was bad news for McLaren, with Button and Hamilton fifth and sixth quickest on Saturday afternoon.
"It's clear now we're the third team, which I've been saying for a while. Ferrari did a great job and I think we just need to keep pushing," Hamilton told the BBC.
"There's some time there, but I don't think I would ever be anywhere near the Ferrari or Red Bulls."
But even though the Brit insists McLaren are only the third quickest, the McLaren driver admits he had still hoped for better.
"I never expect to be sixth, for sure, but I've been saying for a long time that generally we are the third fastest team and today the two teams in front did a better job," he said.
"And my lap wasn't fantastic, but that's the way it is.
"My qualifying pace was quite poor, to be honest. I don't think it was great, but I did the best job I could."
But despite starting P6, Hamilton is determined to finish higher up the order come Sunday afternoon: "I'll do the best job from where I am, hopefully get a good start and just chase the guys down."
However, team boss Martin Whitmarsh says that could be a tough task given the pace of the cars in front of his drivers.
"Inevitably when you're on the third row it's a little disappointing," he said.
"Ferrari have made some good progress, they look strong. Frankly, Ferrari and Red Bull look quicker than us in qualifying mode.
"We'll have to see whether we can match them in the race. We have high speed at the end of the straight, and maybe we can attack."
