Lewis Hamilton reflected on his Dutch Grand Prix qualifying as “shocking”, saying it all went wrong after his Sergio Perez impeding incident.
A moment down at Turn 9, during the opening Q1 segment at Zandvoort, left Red Bull’s Perez enraged as he felt Hamilton had got in his way despite moving to the far left. “What the f**k is this idiot doing?!” Perez vented over team radio, adding: “For worse than that I’ve been penalised, so I don’t expect any less.”
Lewis Hamilton laments ‘shocking’ Dutch GP qualifying
Additional reporting by Sam Cooper
The stewards swiftly announced a post-session investigation into potential impeding from Hamilton, who later went on to be knocked out in Q2 in the first race weekend back after the summer shutdown.
“I did absolutely do my best to try and be as far out of the way as possible. It just didn’t work,” Hamilton told media including PlanetF1.com after his qualifying elimination.
Key talking points after a dramatic Dutch GP qualifying
Hamilton expanded on that incident when speaking to Sky F1, calling his qualifying “shocking” and claiming that following that Perez moment, it was all downhill from there.
“Yeah, it was a pretty shocking session,” he said.
“But these things happen. What can I say, it’s done now. Definitely doesn’t feel good.
“It all went badly from the moment that situation with Perez happened. I did my best to get out of the way. I was as far to the left as possible, but just timing was bad.”
Asked if that put him off as of his next lap, as it was suggested to him that it was not a very tidy one, Hamilton replied: “It’s a domino effect probably. From that moment it just went from bad to worse.”
Ahead of the stewards casting their verdict, Hamilton – who won last time out at Spa – is due to start the Dutch Grand Prix from P12, Zandvoort a venue where overtaking traditionally is far more difficult than at Spa.
And Hamilton is not even hopeful of his chances of breaking into the top 10.
“It’ll be a struggle to get into the top 10 probably,” Hamilton told media including PlanetF1.com when asked for his race day expectations.
George Russell will lead the Mercedes charge from a podium finish as he prepares to launch from P4 on the grid.