Pace looked strong for Lewis Hamilton in the 2024 F1 Dutch Grand Prix. He saw the chequered flag six places higher than where he’d begun the race, gaining more positions than any other driver.
Unfortunately, this impressive drive only resulted in an 8th place finish. Hamilton had qualified at a measly P12, and started the race P14 after a penalty. He feels that the race itself went well, even if the result felt uninspiring.
“I felt like I did a lot, but I didn’t really get that far. It felt like I did more than what my result shows. But unfortunately, qualifying really made it difficult.
He finished one position behind his Mercedes teammate George Russell, who had qualified P4. After having a driver on the podium in the last 5 races before summer break, and winning 3 of those 5, 7th and 8th place finishes were not what Mercedes had expected going into this weekend.
George Russell expressed after the race that the pace of the Mercedes car had “disappeared,” and he was confused as to how he lost 3 positions. Hamilton, however, who ended up finishing just 5 seconds behind Russell, felt that his issue was his poor qualifying.
He believes a top 5 was on the cards, fighting for the podium if qualifying had gone far better.
“If I just qualified like I should have qualified, if I didn’t have the problem of qualifying, then yeah. I think I had the pace today to be definitely in the top five,” Hamilton said. “But if I started fourth, for example, I would have finished at least fourth.”
Despite believing qualifying was his downfall this weekend, Hamilton does agree with his teammate that something felt off with the car.
“Partly me, partly the car,” the British driver said, when asked about identifying the problem, “I think the car definitely didn’t feel as strong as the last race, for some reason. We need to look into that. Whether our upgrade is actually delivering or not, we need to wait and see.”
Whether their upgrade is “delivering or not” is exactly what the Mercedes team will want to figure out before going into Monza next weekend. With 9 races remaining in the season, they’ll aim to close the 94-point gap separating them from 3rd place Ferrari in the World Constructors’ Championship.
