Lewis Hamilton admitted to enduring a frustrating qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday, concluding that his P12 performance in the session equated to his F1 weekend “kind of being done”.
The Mercedes driver was eliminated in Q2, a surprising outcome considering his initial strong pace in the first segment of qualifying.
Adding insult to injury, the Briton was also under investigation for potentially impeding Sergio Perez during Q1, although footage of the moment placed the Mercedes well out of harm’s way of the Mexican driver.
Hamilton started the session on a positive note, setting the fifth-fastest time in Q1, just three-tenths of a second off the pace. However, his fortunes changed dramatically in Q2.
Struggling with oversteer and a lack of pace, he found himself over four-tenths of a second adrift from the top time, causing him to drop out of the session earlier than expected.
Reflecting on his challenging qualifying, Hamilton said: “It just went downhill like a domino effect from the moment with Checo.
“Then the balance just got more and more snappy, more and more oversteer-y. It was terrible.”
Given the difficulty of overtaking at Zandvoort and the potential of being hit with a grid penalty by the stewards for impeding Perez, Hamilton acknowledged that his chances of a strong result this weekend were slim.
“It’s definitely very, very frustrating, naturally, but this is what it is,” he conceded. “That’s kind of hard. It’s kind of the weekend done, and we have to move on to next week.”
©Mercedes
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff echoed Hamilton's disappointment. After strong performances in practice, Wolff had higher expectations for both Mercedes drivers.
“We were hoping for better than 12th for Lewis and fourth for George Russell in the other car,” he said.
Wolff explained that the car's performance during qualifying was unexpectedly challenging to manage, which led to Hamilton’s early exit.
“Looking at the previous sessions we were pretty much always among the top three. And then, we just had a car that was on a knife-edge,” he explained.
“It was very difficult to nurture through the lap. Lots of understeer, snap oversteer and the moment you go over those temperature thresholds, you have no performance anymore. That’s why we had this freakish moment where Lewis just fell out in Q2.
“Also P4 from George, I think he’s probably done the maximum, but we are not happy with that performance.”
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