Lewis Hamilton admits crashing out of the Dutch Grand Prix was a painful solution to finish what had been a weekend of progress for him and Ferrari.
A troublesome race in Hungary noticed Hamilton significantly downbeat heading into the summer time break, however he was on the tempo with Charles Leclerc in Zandvoort, qualifying simply 0.05s behind his teammate. When operating behind George Russell early within the race, Hamilton instructed an undercut after Leclerc pitted, however slid extensive at Flip 3 and hit the barrier, retiring for the primary time in his Ferrari profession.
“No, I didn’t [necessarily] need the undercut at the moment,” Hamilton mentioned. “I used to be simply saying that we’d must most likely attempt to undercut them sooner or later. I needed to go lengthy, so my tires have been nonetheless feeling good. I simply… Yeah, took me by full shock what occurred; I misplaced the rear up the financial institution, and that was it.
“Other than that, it’s been a very strong weekend. I really feel like I made progress, simply general, and my strategy and every thing. To come back away with nothing is unquestionably painful.”
Whereas Hamilton says he’s disenchanted to not rating factors for Ferrari this weekend, he says the crash received’t knock his confidence as he feels it’s a uncommon mistake from his viewpoint.
“I really feel OK,” he mentioned. “I’m unhappy for the workforce, as a result of I actually needed to get these factors for the workforce in the present day, and I truthfully felt like I had the tempo within the automobiles forward of me. I hoped to see actual progress within the race.
“Really feel positive mentally. I’ve felt a number of positives, I felt I used to be making progress, I used to be catching the automotive forward. It’s robust to have a end result like that for certain, however I’ve been racing for thus lengthy. I’ve had God is aware of what number of races. You possibly can most likely rely on one hand that type of incident.”
Teammate Leclerc additionally had a tricky afternoon, as he was taken out later within the race by Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, because the pair battled over what was set to be fifth place following pit stops.
“It is a mistake from Kimi,” Leclerc mentioned. “I feel you have to be very aggressive on a monitor like this to overhaul, which I feel he tried to be aggressive. Perhaps it was a bit an excessive amount of. He went on to the touch my rear left, and that was the top of my race. It is disappointing…
“Would not describe it a rookie mistake. I feel it is only a mistake which might occur the primary yr or the fifth yr. Once more, as I mentioned, on a monitor like this, you’ll be able to must be aggressive, however that was an excessive amount of.”
