Hamilton Writes Off Dutch Grand Prix Weekend After 'Shocking' Qualifying

Saturday, 24 August 2024 at 17:47

Updated at Sunday, 25 August 2024 at 00:03

Lewis Hamilton said the weekend was "done" for him after a failed qualifying session at the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix.

The seven-time World Champion came to the Circuit Zandvoort on a positive streak as he hasn't finished worse than P4 in any of the preceding six Grand Prix weekends.

While anything could happen during Sunday's race, it looked like it would be super challenging for the 39-year-old to keep this streak going after the qualifying.

In Q1, Hamilton looked like one of the fastest drivers on track. However, he suddenly lost performance and was knocked out of Q2, which meant he would have to start the Grand Prix race from P12.

In Q2, his final lap was 0.452 seconds slower than the fastest one set by Lando Norris and 0.396 seconds slower than the one set by his teammate. Hamilton told Sky Sports after qualifying:

“"Yeah, that was pretty shocking session. But you know, these things happen. It's done now and definitely doesn't feel good."”

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“"It all went badly since the 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. It was just a domino effect from that moment."”

In an interview with F1TV, the seven-time World Champion looked even more destroyed and said the weekend in the Netherlands was basically over for him.

“"It's very, very frustrating, but it is what it is. It's kind of the weekend done and now we move on to the next week."”

On top of everything, Hamilton impeded Sergio Perez on one of the Mexican's flying laps and was threatened with an additional penalty that would put him at least three positions back—P15.

Considering that Zandvoort is one of the most challenging circuits for overtaking, Hamilton's weekend didn't look promising.