
Lewis Hamilton admitted he was taken by “complete surprise” as an uncharacteristic crash saw him make a “painful” early exit from the Dutch Grand Prix.
Hamilton had been running in seventh during the early stages of the race before Ferrari brought him in for a pit stop in an attempt to undercut the Mercedes of George Russell.
With Hamilton pushing to make the undercut stick as light rain fell, the seven-time world champion got off line through the banked Hugenholtzbocht hairpin, lost control and hit the barrier.
Reflecting on the incident, Hamilton said: “I didn’t really want the undercut necessarily, at that time.
“I was just saying that we would have to probably try and undercut them at some point.
“But it was more I wanted to go long, my tyres were still feeling good. It just took me by complete surprise, what just happened there. I lost the rear end up the bank, and that was it.
The retirement – in the first race after the sport’s summer break – extended Hamilton’s streak of 15 races without a grand prix podium since joining Ferrari at the start of this season.
The 40-year-old had described himself as “useless” amid his struggles in Hungary at the final round before the break, but said upon arriving in Zandvoort that he was focused on “getting back to enjoying” racing.
Hamilton was at least able to take some solace from the fact he was closer to his team-mate Charles Leclerc in terms of general pace throughout the weekend.
He said: “Apart from that, it’s been a really solid weekend, and we made lots of… I felt like I made progress, just overall approach and everything.
“And so to come away with nothing is definitely painful.”
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Hamilton added: “It was a bit twitchy, the car. I think we made real progress this weekend. My pace was looking pretty decent.
“I was catching George and I think I had the pace of a few cars ahead of me.
“Very unusual to not finish a race and to go out so early, it’s definitely not great but it is what it is.”
Vasseur: Overall Lewis did a good job
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur suggested that the transition from following Russell into the corner, to attacking it in clean air, was potentially what caught Hamilton out.
Vasseur told Sky Sports F1: “I think he was behind George from the beginning of the race, and it was when we had the first stop, perhaps he was a bit wider in the corner, he was a bit faster than the lap before, a bit wider, and probably he touched the damp side of the track.”
Despite the disappointment of Ferrari suffering a double DNF a week before their home race in Monza, with Leclerc taken out by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Vasseur was pleased with the way his squad bounced back from being way off the pace during practice on Friday.
“Overall I think Lewis did a very good job this weekend,” Vasseur said.
“He was part of the recovery of the team. He was able to push us and to come back on a decent pace after Friday, and the race pace was ok.
“But for sure, if you want to score points, you have to finish the race.”
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