Lewis Hamilton conceded he had produced a sub-standard effort in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and predicted Sunday will see a race without too much drama.

With Mercedes on the brink of clinching a seventh successive constructors' championship this weekend, Valtteri Bottas will start the race at Imola on pole.

Bottas beat team-mate Hamilton by 0.097seconds in qualifying on Saturday to claim his second pole in three attempts.

Hamilton, who last time out claimed the outright F1 record with a 92nd race win in Portugal, will fight hard for a third straight victory but thinks whoever leads after turn one will be in a strong position to triumph.

"Valtteri did a great job and that was a pretty p***-poor lap from myself," said Hamilton, who leads the standings by 77 points.

"These things happen and you can't always get it perfect. I am grateful to have the performance that we have, it is really remarkable - it feels better here for us than it did in the last race."

Asked about the circuit and what was in store for the race, Hamilton replied: "The speeds we are going around this track are unbelievable. It is a real challenge.

"What is unfortunate on this track is it is so beautiful to drive but I'm pretty certain you are going to see a pretty a boring race.

"You can overtake on this long straight, but it is quite narrow and you can't follow it up. Once you get into turn one it is a train from there, there is no real single place to overtake anywhere else.

"It is going to be a challenge for people following. The DRS hopefully will give some opportunities for overtakes at turn one, but you need two seconds' advantage [to overtake there].

"I will give it everything I have got, fingers crossed. This is a beautiful location, this part of Italy. They don't build tracks like this anymore, it is a classic and has got the history."

Pole-sitter Bottas is ready for a battle at turn one, with Max Verstappen also a threat from third.

"You always have to fight, it is never easy getting pole positions," he said. "This track when you push flat out is beautiful and it's a great feeling to get pole - I definitely had the shakes afterwards!

"I had to improve on the last lap and I found those small gains that were needed.

"It's going to be a good fight. It is one of the longest runs in the calendar down to turn one. No doubt Lewis and Max will be there chasing me but it is a good place to start, hopefully the pace is good. Game on."

There was some relief for Verstappen, who was almost eliminated in Q2 when an electrical issue left Red Bull mechanics with a race against time to get his car fixed.

He said: "It wasn't a great qualifying because of the issue - we didn't have a lot of laps, I only did two laps in Q1 and then could not get that run in for Q2.

"It was a bit tricky. With the mediums we got through, but we didn’t have a reference point to get into Q3. We seemed to be struggling a bit, not a lot of grip in the first run and just difficult overall.

"At the end of the day P3 is not bad but personally I expected to be a little bit closer to be able to fight Mercedes a little bit more. But after Q2 we just lost our way a little bit."