Hamilton says his Dutch GP weekend is “done” after qualifying 12th · RaceFans

Lewis Hamilton said he is already thinking of the next race weekend after a poor result in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver was eliminated in the second round of qualifying and took 12th place on the grid. He is also under investigation for potentially impeding Sergio Perez during Q1.

Hamilton appeared to be in good shape as qualifying began. He set the fifth-fastest time in Q1, three-tenths of a second off the pace. However he grappled with oversteer on his final lap in Q2, lapped over four tenths of a second away from the best time, and dropped out in 12th.

He said his session “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,” Hamilton told the official F1 channel. “It was terrible.”

As overtaking is often difficult at Zandvoort, and Hamilton is at risk of a further penalty, he fears his chances of a strong result this weekend have passed.

“It’s definitely very, very frustrating, naturally, but this is what it is,” said Hamilton. “That’s kind of hard. It’s kind of the weekend done and we have to move on to next week.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted they were “hoping for better” than 12th for Hamilton and fourth for George Russell in their other car after their performances in practice.

“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.

“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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